Happy is he who can give himself up.
The real malady is fear of life, not of death.
At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.
I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it’s because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.
The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.
Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad times. We are condemned to work with upstarts, clowns who no doubt got their training in a circus and then turned to journalism as the appropriate place to display their tricks.
If life has no meaning, why don’t we create a meaning for it?
Art is a criticism of society and life, and I believe that if life became perfect, art would be meaningless and cease to exist.
We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were.
The heart is a place of secrets...
He seemed to be waiting for a miracle to save him from the depths his life had reached and take him to a land of dreams.
Literature should be more revolutionary than revolutions themselves; writers must find the means to continue to be critical of the negative elements in the sociopolitical reality.
It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.
Only the poor are handicapped by honor.
Today’s interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.
An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.
Insults are the business of the court.
The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
Events at home, at work, in the street – these are the bases for a story.