Naguib Mahfouz

In his 70 year career Naguib Mahfouz has enriched the Arabic literature scene with 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays. Not only that many of his movies have also been made into Egyptian and foreign films for the range of themes they cover. In fact he is regarded one of the first contemporary Egyptian writers who has introduce and explore themes of existentialism, homosexuality and religion. Mahfouz was the only Arab writer to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."

"If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion."

"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."

"If we reject science, we reject the common man."

"I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature."