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I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.

Naguib Mahfouz

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Naguib Mahfouz
Age: 94 †
Born: 1911
Born: December 11
Died: 2006
Died: August 30
Artist
Autobiographer
Film Writer
Intellectual
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Short Story Writer
Translator
Writer
Cairo
Egypt
Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha
Defend
Attack
Society
Individual
Right
Believe
Disagrees
Disagree

More quotes by Naguib Mahfouz

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I believe in life and in people. I feel obliged to advocate their highest ideals as long as I believe them to be true. I also see myself compelled to revolt against ideals I believe to be false, since recoiling from rebellion would be a form of treason
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
Naguib Mahfouz
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We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.
Naguib Mahfouz
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Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.
Naguib Mahfouz
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History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
Naguib Mahfouz
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I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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The real malady is fear of life, not of death
Naguib Mahfouz
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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.
Naguib Mahfouz
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Home is not where you were born home is where all your attempts to escape cease.
Naguib Mahfouz
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Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.
Naguib Mahfouz
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In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.
Naguib Mahfouz
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You know what I'm afraid of? That God is sick of us.
Naguib Mahfouz