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.

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.

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.

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

The real malady is fear of life, not of death

Happy is he who can give himself up.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.