Alifa Rifaat

"She returned to the living room and poured out the coffee for herself. She was surprised at how calm she was."

"Isn’t it better, when he returns, for your father to find himself with a legitimate son [rather] than an illegitimate grandson?"

"Daughter, I’m not crying now because I’m fed up or regret that the Lord created me a woman. No, it’s not that. It’s just that I’m sad about my life and my youth that have come and gone without my knowing how to live them really and truly as a woman."

"“Only blood,” he said, “washes dishonor clean.”"

"“Father, you gave me a real beating tonight.”"

"The fact is there’s no joy for a girl in growing up, it’s just one disaster after another till you end up an old woman who’s good for nothing and who’s real lucky if she finds someone to feel sorry for her."

"(AWS, 1987; Page 8)"

"There was no doubt but that the secret of my passion for her, my preoccupation with her, was due to the excitement that had aroused, through intense fear, desire within myself; an excitement that was sufficiently strong to drive the blood hotly through my veins whenever the memory of her came to me, thrusting the blood in bursts that made my heart beat widly, my limbs limp."

"(AWS, 1987; Page 71)"

"An idea would obtrude itself upon me sometimes: did Cleopatra, the very legend of love, have sexual intercourse with her serpent after having given up sleeping with men, having wearied of amorous adventures with them so that her sated instincts were no longer moved other than by the excitement of fear, her senses no longer aroused other than by bites from a snake? And the last of her lovers had been a viper that had destroyed her."

"Perfect beauty is to be found only in woman,’ she said, ‘so yield to me and I shall let you taste undreamed of happiness…’"

"(AWS, 1987; Page 75)"