Novelists From Cairo

"You need to focus on the numbers you'll see in these cases and the dates, because there's a puzzle you need to solve to save yourself from the possession that has struck. Thirty living dead and dead living, with a wound on their backs bearing the letter Gh, and people acting unconsciously, or are they possessed?""

"Have you ever felt like you possess 99 souls in one body, souls that are neither human nor imaginary, but of a different kind? Their price isn't money, nor is it human, you'll know their price when you get to know Asirkas and read all his cases."

"…A work of fiction lives by empathy – the extending of my self into another's, the willingness to imagine myself in someone else's shoes. This itself is a political act: empathy is at the heart of much revolutionary action…"

"…Most people are content to live their lives within prescribed and personal boundaries. But one of the points of artists surely is that they live outside their skin. That they're connected. That they hurt with the hurt of their fellow humans. How, then, can they disengage? How can you – if your task, if your gift, is narrative – absent yourself from the great narrative of the world?..."

"Maybe not a hydra because that’s really, really nasty. I think there was almost a false head: we ripped open the packaging and now we’re faced with the real thing that’s there in the box…"

"…In Egypt, in the decade of slow, simmering discontent before the revolution, novelists produced texts of critique, of dystopia, of nightmare. Now, we all seem to have given up – for the moment – on fiction."

"Sire, after you, no one from your seed shall sit upon the throne of Egypt."

"It is something worth picking from the thrash-can the alluring experience of the working days."

"God did not intend religion to be an exercise club."

"My lord, Your Divine Majesty! Why differentiate your lofty self from the people of Egypt, as one would the head from the heart or the soul from the body? You are, my lord, the token of their honor, the mark of their eminence, the citadel of their strength, and the inspiration for their power. You have endowed them with life, glory, might, and happiness. In their affection there is neither humiliation nor enslavement; but rather, a beautiful loyalty and venerable love for you, and for the homeland."

"And of what value is the life of an individual? It equals not a single dry tear to one who looks to the far future and the grand plan. For this I would be cruel without any qualms. I would strike with an iron hand, and drive hundreds of thousands through hardships-not from stupidity of character or despotic egotism."

"She is beauty herself, Your Majesty. She is an irresistible temptation, a desire that cannot be controlled. The philosopher Hof, who is one of her closest friends, has remarked quite correctly that the most dangerous things a man can do in his life is to set eyes upon the face of Rhadopis."

"A look of vehemence appeared on the king's face. "Is it right that Pharao should yield to the will of the people?"

"Abbas now marveled at the strength of love, its power and its strange magic. He thought it right that God had created mankind capable of love and then left the task of developing life to the fertility of love."

"Patience allows ministers and obedient subjects to bear great tribulations-but the greatness of kings is in overcoming calamities, not enduring them. For this reason, the gods have compensated them for their want of patience with an abundance of power."

"It was amazing that in this country where people allowed emotion to guide their politics they approached love with the precision of accountants."

"It's fantastic the way these young men act. Why, they scarcely have a penny to their names, yet they see no reason why they shouldn't get married and populate the whole alley with children who get their food from garbage carts."

"Satan finds the doors of youth an easy entrance and he slips in both secretly and openly to spread his havoc. We should do all we can do to prevent the doors of youth opening to him and keep them tightly closed. Just think of elderly men to whom age has given the keys of respectability. What would be the situation if we were to see them deliberately opening these doors and calling out in invitation to the devil?"

"The barber is young and Mr. Alwan is old; the barber is of the same class as Hamida and Mr. Alwan is not. The marriage of a man like Alwan to a girl like your daughter is bound to bring problems which will make her unhappy."

"If money is the aim and object of those who squabble for power, then there is clearly no harm in money being the objective of the poor voters."

"Kirsha thought of Hitler as the world's greatest bully; indeed his admiration for him stemmed from what he heard of his cruelty and barbarity. He wished him success, viewing him like those mythical bravados of literature Antar and Abu Zaid."

"What hopeless wretches we are. Our country is pitiful and so are the people. Why is it that the only time we find a little happiness is when the world is involved in a bloody war? Surely it's only the devil who has pity on us in this world."

"Some consider that such tragedies afflicting apparently blameless people are signs of revengeful justice, the wisdom of which is beyond the understanding of most people. So you will hear them say that if the bereaved father, for example, thought deeply, he would realize his loss was just a punishment for some sin either he or his forebears committed. Yet surely God is more just and merciful than to treat the innocent as the guilty..."

"He and Raifa each lived in hell, in a world of tedium."

"Why do people laugh, dance in triumph, feel recklessly secure in positions of power? Why do they not remember the true place in the scheme of things and their inevitable end?"

"[....] was struck by the idea of a woman's weakness is her emotions, and that her relationships with men should be rational and calculated. Life is precious, with vast possibilities, limitless horizons. Love is nothing more than a blind beggar, creeping around the alleyways."

"In the Harafish, dreams are carried on the shoulders of ordinary people."

"The Harafish is a reflection of the eternal struggle between good and evil."

"The Harafish is a labyrinth where the paths of the lowly and the noble intertwine."

"You will never accuse me of meekness hereafter, Father, for I am swept by a sacred desire, strong as the northern winds, a desire to know the truth and record it, as you did in the prime of your youth."

"My lord, our immortal philosopher Kagemni, vizier to King Huni, says that patience is man's refuge in times of despair, and his armor against misfortunes."

"Listen, Said. Things are no longer what they used to be. In the past, you were both a thief and my friend, for reasons you well know. Now the situation has changed. If you go back to a burglary you'll be a thief and nothing else.""

"They think my God and I are defeated. But he never betrays not does he accept defeat."

"He was, in fact, a veritable crouching tiger, willing to cringe and fawn until he mastered his adversary, and woe to anyone he did master! Experience had taught him that this gentleman and others like him were enemies with whom must be friendly. They were, as he put it, useful devils."

"(Rauf, p. 44)"

"She's forgotten too, that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity."

"(Said, p. 14)"

"If there was a dog in the house—other than its owner, of course—it would now fill the universe with barking."

"(Narrator, p. 49)"

"You always act impulsively, Said, without thinking, but you mustn't rush this time; you must wait until you've arranged things, then swoop like an eagle."

"(Said, p. 69)"

"With this revolver I can awake those who are asleep. They're the root of the trouble. They're the ones who've made creatures like Nabawiyya, Ilish, and Rauf Ilwan possible."

"(Said, p. 84)"

"A city of silence and truth, where success and failure, murderer and victim, come together, where thieves and policemen lie side by side in peace for the first and last time."

"(Narrator, p. 89)"

"The silence of the graves is more intense, but you can't switch on the light...Your eyes will get used to the dark."

"(Said, p. 95)"

"There's a lot of intelligence in his eyes. His heart is as spotless as yours. You'll find he'll turn out, with God's will, a truly good man.""

"(Said, quoting the Sheikh, p. 102)"

"the priests are swindlers” and the “temples are brothels, and there is nothing they hold sacred but their carnal desires."