Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever.
Naguib MahfouzRead
We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of cultural heritage in artistic expression.
Naguib Mahfouz highlights how artists can adopt Western styles in their work while still honoring and incorporating their own cultural narratives, as exemplified by the rich storytelling tradition found in 'The Thousand and One Nights.' This reflects a blend of global influences and local heritage in art, suggesting that one's roots are crucial in shaping creative expression.
In practice
During a lecture on cultural influences in art, one might use this quote to highlight the significance of heritage.
Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever.
It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.
As for life's tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love.
I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.
If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.
I believe in life and in people. I feel obliged to advocate their highest ideals as long as I believe them to be true. I also see myself compelled to revolt against ideals I believe to be false, since recoiling from rebellion would be a form of treason
I do not have many things that are meaningful to me. Except my doubts and my fears. And my art.
The writer must be able to revel and roll in the abundance of words; he must know not only the direct but also the secret power of a word. There are overtones and undertones to a word, and lateral echoes, too.
I can see myself as a very old man in a terrific wheelchair. Only, I won't be photographing the tree outside my window, the way Steichen did. I'll be photographing other old people.
When you start to think of the arts as not this thing that is going to get you somewhere in terms of becoming an artist or becoming famous or whatever it is that people do, but rather a way of making being in the world not just bearable, but fascinating, then it starts to get interesting again.
Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other.
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.