A friend of mine owned a printing press. We began publishing in 1943 with some regularity. We published a story of mine every year.
According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.
An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.
As much as I would have loved to travel when I was young, nowadays I no longer have the desire. A two-week trip would disrupt my lifestyle.
As the tension eases, we must look in the direction of agriculture, industry and education as our final goals, and toward democracy under Mr Mubarak.
At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.
Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.
Every society has its traditions, laws, and religious beliefs, which it tries to preserve.
Frankly, I am one of those people who have prepared my life well.
God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.
Head covering has become a style, a fashion. It has no more meaning than that for most.
History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.
I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.
I also begin stories by writing about a character's behavior at length, allowing the theme to emerge later on.
I am now writing Dreams of Recuperation.
I am one of those people who have prepared my life well.
I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.
I attend a session to which new writers are invited. Many come: poets, writers, literary types.
I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.
I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.
I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.
I defend both the freedom of expression and society's right to counter it. I must pay the price for differing. It is the natural way of things.
I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.
I drank, I pursued the gentler sex, and so forth.
I have never had time to do as I please. But I stopped writing about three years ago.
I have to discard my revisions. I have terrible handwriting.
I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.
I moved from the science section to the literature section when I was in secondary school.
I received the prize at a later stage of my writing career, unfortunately. The only thing I wrote afterwards was Echoes of an Autobiography.
I reject any path which rejects life, but I can't help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle.
I started writing while I was a little boy.
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.
I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
I wake up early in the morning and walk for an hour. If I have something to write, I prefer to write in the morning until midday, and in the afternoon, I eat.
I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.
I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom.
I was greatly honoured by the state and people in a way that deeply moved me.
I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.
I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.
I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.
If I want to portray a human's ability to surmount whatever evil may befall him, I will create a hero capable of demonstrating that idea.
If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.
If we reject science, we reject the common man.
If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.
In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.
Insults are the business of the court.
It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.
My countrymen have the right to shake my hand and talk to me if they so wish. Don't forget that their support and their reading of my works is what brought me the Nobel prize.
My eyesight has deteriorated a lot recently.
My short stories come straight from the heart.
My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
No one with a family has a free moment in Egypt.
One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.
Russian visitors as well as Germans came to Egypt to invite us to the Frankfurt International Book Fair.
Sadat made us feel more secure.
Science has a place in society, just as a new religion does.
Since I stopped working for the government in 1971, I have had more time for friends.
Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel.
The Arab world also won the Nobel with 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.
The book is about ghettos and the people who run them, but it was interpreted as being about the prophets.
The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.
The critics, only they can say whether my writings influenced Arabic literature or not.
The head of literary censorship advised me not to publish the book in Egypt in order to prevent conflict with the main seat of Islam in Cairo.
The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.
The Sheikh rejects life as we know it.
The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.
There are no heroes in most of my stories. I look at our society with a critical eye and find nothing extraordinary in the people I see.
Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.
We Arab writers did borrow the modern concept of the short story from the West, but by now they have been internalized in our own literature.
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.
We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.
We can sit in our homes and speak loudly as though we were in England. But the constitution does need revising.
We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights.
Why do I need a private car? I will travel as always, by train or public bus. Nothing has changed.
Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.
Without literature my life would be miserable.
Without them no one outside this country would have heard of me. The Nobel prize would be a terrible thing if it were to separate me from the people among whom I lived all my life.
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
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