When you spend time with your friends, what do you talk about? Those things which made an impression on you that day, that week ... I write stories the same way. Events at home, in school, at work, in the street, these are the bases for a story. Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel.
Naguib MahfouzIf you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.
Naguib MahfouzThere 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.
Naguib Mahfouz