Naguib Mahfouz

I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.

The judge said I was a menace to society because I had put crime on a scientific basis.

Being famous gets me good concert tickets, good tables in restaurants, good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.