To have arrived at the truth means that one no longer fears death. For death and truth are similar in that they both require a great courage if one wishes to face them.

If you do not love yourself, well, you cannot do anything well, that's my philosophy.

Truth is relative, and there is always something missing in truth that prevents it from being perfect.

We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression.

People like [Memoirs of a Woman Doctor], whether young people, young women, even critics - male critics - they were not shocked by it. Of course, some parts were cut.

Interviewer: What would you say to a woman in this country who assumes she is no longer oppressed, who believes women's liberation has been achieved? el Saadawi: Well I would think she is blind. Like many people who are blind to gender problems, to class problems, to international problems. She's blind to what's happening to her.

I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die.