Naguib Mahfouz

• "At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.“
• "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.“
• "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.“
• "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.“
• "God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.“
• "God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.“
• "History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.“
• "Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.“
• "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 accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.“
• "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've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.“
• "God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.“
• "If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.“
• "Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.“
• "If we reject science, we reject the common man.“
• "History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.“
• "I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.“
• "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.“
• "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.“

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