My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite is deadly. Nawal El Saadawi More Quotes by Nawal El Saadawi More Quotes From Nawal El Saadawi There is a proverb that says, ‘Talk so that I may know who you are.’ But I say, ‘Show me your eyes and I will know who you are. Nawal El Saadawi show-meeyemay Everybody has to die, Firdaus. I will die, and you will die. The important thing is how to live until you die. Nawal El Saadawi important-thingsdiesimportant Language, journalism, food, sex. All is politics. Even innocent love stories are politics. ... There is no such thing as neutrality. Nawal El Saadawi neutralitystoriessex What we require is not a formal return to tradition and religion, but a rereading, a reinterpretation, of our history that can illuminate the present and pave the way to a better future. For example, if we delve more deeply into ancient Egyptian and African civilisations we will discover the humanistic elements that were prevalent in many areas of life. Women enjoyed a high status and rights, which they later lost when class patriarchal society became the prevalent social system. Nawal El Saadawi rightsclassway I never stopped writing. I started writing when I was twelve years of age. And I was writing all the time. But nothing was translated until thirty years after I started writing, when The Hidden Face of Eve was translated in 1980. Nawal El Saadawi agewritingyears I am very much against makeup and high heels and all that we inherit as 'beauty.' Nawal El Saadawi heelsmakeuphigh-heels Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages. People feel they know me and the minute they talk about my life or books I feel at home. Home is where you are appreciated, safe and protected, creative, and where you are loved – not where you are put in prison. Nawal El Saadawi homebookpeople There is not a revolution that succeeded in a few months. It takes years, even decades, to fulfill its goals. I am very hopeful because I trust the revolution and feel nobody can really conquer a nation that has decided to be united and to fight, and we decided to fight. The revolution is there, inside the Egyptians by the millions. Nawal El Saadawi fightinggoalyears Plastic surgery is a postmodern veil. Nawal El Saadawi plasticsurgeryveils When my second husband shouted, 'Me or your writing!' I replied, 'My writing.' We separated. Nawal El Saadawi husbandwriting Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies. Nawal El Saadawi honestymotivationallying 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. Nawal El Saadawi believecountrythinking You poor, deluded woman...do you believe there is any such thing as love?...You're living an illusion. Do you believe the words of love they whisper in the ears of penniless women like us? Nawal El Saadawi earslove-youbelieve If you do not love yourself, well, you cannot do anything well, that's my philosophy. Nawal El Saadawi wellslove-youphilosophy Man ... put himself in a tight corner when he decided that woman was innately passive. Nawal El Saadawi cornerspassivemen Words should not seek to please, to hide the wounds in our bodies, or the shameful moments in our lives. They may hurt, give us pain, but they can also provoke us to question what we have accepted for thousands of years. Nawal El Saadawi painhurtyears Memory is never complete. There are always parts of it that time has amputated. Writing is a way of retrieving them, of bringing the missing parts back to it, of making it more holistic. Nawal El Saadawi missingwritingmemories Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself. Nawal El Saadawi harderlife-ispeople I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was better than a cheap one. Nawal El Saadawi expensive Something I tried to hold onto, to touch if only for a moment, but it slipped away from me like the air, like an illusion, or a dream that floats away and is lost. I wept in my sleep as though it was something I was losing now; a loss I was experiencing for the first time, and not something I had lost a long time ago. Nawal El Saadawi dreamlosssleep
