In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.
If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.
History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
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.
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.
It's not surprising that truly humanitarian manifestos originate frequently in minority circles or with people whose consciences are troubled by the problems of minorities.
Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.
Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever.
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