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.

One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.

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

Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.

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.

He seemed to be waiting for a miracle to save him from the depths his life had reached and take him to a land of dreams.