Since literature is not eaten like bread, as they say, and is poor in the face of inflation, Naguib Mahfouz chose to work in a clerical job at the university after graduation, giving him the opportunity to pursue his main hobby of literature, writing stories and novels, fully aware that novels are more controversial than any other literary genre.

Our writer remained in this first job of his life until 1938, which was the most fertile period of his life. During his life, he never considered literature to be a permanent source of income.

When he retired in 1971, he apologized to Dr. Mohamed Abdel Qader Hatem when he suggested renewing or extending his service, telling him: "I want to devote myself to literature." He felt free and united with literature and art.

The author of the "Trilogy" believes that literature is the major means of liberation, but it can also be a means of regression. Satisfying literature has emerged that has been freezing the mind and killing the spirit for generations.

So, when he stopped practicing literature for reasons beyond his control, he called this period of suspension "literary despair," as happened during the first suspension (1952-1957) after the revolution. He believed at the time that the revolution would achieve what he had advocated before it. He wrote the New Cairo, Khan El Khalili, Alley of the Pestle, the Trilogy, and others. When the revolution took place, he found nothing to write about, so he resorted to writing screenplays for cinema. But when literature moved, he left "cinema" and returned to it, longing greatly.

His love for literature took him away from his love for soccer. Our writer excelled in the game of soccer and planned to become a famous great player in the mixed club (Zamalek). But his love for literature prevailed.

He believes that classifying writers and placing them in specific categories, such as a good novelist and a weak storyteller, or vice versa, is an injustice that falls not only on the writer but also on literature itself.

At the beginning of his literary life, Naguib Mahfouz was annoyed by the abundance of topics, so he prepared about 40 topics suitable for novels about ancient Egyptian history. But at the end of his life, he complained about the scarcity of literary topics.

He always thanks his readers for giving him a certificate of existence in literature and life, "They are the basis, not the critics, and I thank them."

He always remembers the opinion of Mohamed Abdel Qader El Mazny after reading "Alley of the Pestle," where he told him: "The literature you write is called realism, and it has its dangers." He explained to him that realistic literature is not autobiographical. "We are used to in Egypt that the novel is the biography of its author. So either change the method or be aware of the dangers you may face."

Despite this, Mahfouz is one of those who believe that there is no literature that is not realistic, and that all forms lead to it, just as all roads lead to Rome.

He always cherishes what Dr. Ali El-Rai said about the "Trilogy." He was the first to say that the Trilogy of Naguib Mahfouz opened the door to universality for Arabic literature, and that was decades before the Nobel Prize.

Naguib Mahfouz emphasizes that in the period of silencing mouths, literature cautiously groped its perilous way. Free literature continued to find ways to express itself behind masks and symbols, which influenced silence or hypocrisy. Thus, literature enjoyed relative freedom at that time that no other voice enjoyed. The literature of this stage was characterized by evasion, coming as an equivalent to reality, because touching reality was dangerous.

Afterwards, the term "Islamic literature" emerged, and Mahfouz clarified that he is not against Islamic literature; it is good that Islamic literature exists, and any literature is welcome. It doesn't mean that writing Islamic literature should be about Khalid bin Al-Walid, for example. It is enough to have some Islamic values and a general Islamic culture in it. Its proponents limit the matter to the narrowest boundaries. Let it be and let literature be created and writers exist, and let it have its own prize, this is good in itself, and I welcome it. There are writers who belong to Islamic currents who wrote about me in the best possible way, and I didn't expect that from them, such as Dr. Najib Al-Kilani. I read an article of his that was one of the most brilliant. He is an advocate of Islamic literature. At one point, he beautifully acknowledged all the effort I had put forth.

Will literary immortality be achieved for me after death?

Sometimes Najib Mahfouz is referred to as the historian of the Egyptian alley, and he believes that a historian is - willingly or unwillingly - a mirror of his age and a child of his time, and his task is limited to recording the events that occurred in his era in a methodical, organized way. While recording historical events is part of the work of a novelist. Not by observing these events and "watching" them, but by constantly experiencing them. Hassan Abdel Rasoul (Al-Akhbar newspaper, January 15, 1976) says that novel literature does not rely on references or statistics, but first and foremost on the heart, emotion, and conscience. Literature is a document that does not expose what historians are exposed to (details and documents), but rather presents the most important events in their influential relationships in the lives of ordinary individuals. The novel literature makes the general political life and private daily life a fabric that reveals, through it, a basic meaning: the connection of individuals' lives to the life of the homeland.

About the relationship between literature and revolution, the magazine "Art" (Issue 18, July 1955) asked Najib Mahfouz, who said: In my opinion, the relationship between literature and revolution is both before and after. It usually expresses its pain and hopes before the revolution, like in the French Revolution with "Rousseau" and "Voltaire", in the Russian Revolution with "Dostoevsky" and "Tolstoy", and in the modern Egyptian revolution with "Taha Hussein", "Tawfiq Al-Hakim" and "Youssef Al-Siba'i". This is, of course, just an example and not exhaustive. As for after the revolution, literature develops a development derived from its spirit, but that does not come by portraying its strange incidents, but by expressing the core of its spirit, and this cannot be achieved except after a period of time during which the revolution has assimilated its ideas and goals for everyone, and all elements of the nation have become closely connected to it.

Najib Mahfouz believes that sincere literature is the one that is in the interest of art and life together, and literature will not be literature if one of these two elements is missing. A story that portrays the pain of the people and other things that some writers are looking for, but it is flawed in terms of the balance of the story, this is not a story. A story written to portray people who have no connection to our public life has nothing to do with the story being written. There is no literature in the interest of art alone, and there is no literature in the interest of life alone, but it is "art" in the interest of life.

He explains to Ahmed Abbas Saleh (Sabah Al-Khair magazine, January 17, 1956) that literature is an expression of life aimed at enriching the human experience and providing awareness and depth so that it can benefit when deciding its destiny on Earth. As a result, it is inevitable that the experience must be sincere so that the reader's enrichment is not false, which would lead to an opposite result. Human experiences are numerous and varied, and that's why I welcome literature starting from that which records the experience of masturbation to literature of struggle and heroism. I do not believe – based on that – that sincere literature, which records human experiences, should be fought even if the experience is purely sexual.

When Saleh asks him about his opinion on contemporary American literature, he answers: I only liked Faulkner and Steinbeck, as for Hemingway, I only liked his novel "The Old Man and the Sea." In general, I do not interact with American literature, and I feel alienated towards it.

On the contrary, he sees that Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad is the writer who restored the dignity of literature for him. He remembers and says: When I was in high school, I learned that literature was a means for writers to get close to kings and princes, enter palaces, and sit at tables, and I continued to despise literature until I read Al-Aqqad, who gave it sanctity and respect that attracted me to it. Al-Aqqad is the one who introduced thought into literature.

Katnba talks about exposed literature (Al-Ethnain magazine, January 19, 1959), saying: Any literature must be considered a genuine art, as long as its basis is the desire for truth and goodness from the writer's point of view, and its goal is human service. If there is exposed literature within these limits, it is good. However, if the desire is merely to provoke or for commercial gain, it is not considered art at all, and therefore it is not literature.

Mahfouz believes in literary specialization, unlike the previous generation who wrote about everything. He believes that any literary form, whether a story, play, or otherwise, is enough to occupy a writer's life.

He speaks to Fouad Dawara (Al-Kateb magazine, January 1963) about the conflict between literature and philosophy that dominated his mind after graduating from university, and how he decided in favor of literature, saying: "Literature triumphed over philosophy, and I began to study literature in an organized manner." Although it would have been more reasonable and wiser to choose philosophy, he chose literature, confirming, "It may be psychological readiness or some other internal factor; there is no clear explanation for it."

He explains this by saying: Since I did not have a close guide or a teacher to direct me, I relied on books on the history of world literature, such as the famous "Drinkwater" book. My reliance on these books made me study literature century by century without specializing in the literature of a specific nation. I found myself looking at world literature as if it were one literature, not the literature of different peoples. Since my readings of world literature began late, I limited myself to reading masterpieces, and I found that the safest way was to start with the modern era whenever possible. As a result, I missed the opportunity to read some literary peaks because after I read their disciples, I could no longer return to them.

Naguib Mahfouz began reading modern realistic, naturalistic, and analytical literature in 1936, followed by modern literary adventures such as Kafka's expressionism, Joyce's psychological realism, and Proust's elimination of time in the story. He sees Joyce and Proust as the pillars of modern literature in all its forms.

Based on the advice of some thinkers – like Al-Aqqad and Tawfiq Al-Hakim – Naguib Mahfouz embarked on studying arts related to literature. He started with visual arts, painting, sculpture, architecture, and read books on the history of world art, Pharaonic and Greek art, Renaissance art, and then modern art, where schools of thought multiply, diversify, and thus the books and writings multiply. As for music, it has its language that is not studied in books, so he compensated for reading by listening.

Speaking of the function of literature, Naguib Mahfouz tells Mounir Amer (Roz Al-Youssef magazine, November 11, 1963) that the primary function of literature is to critique. It constantly searches for areas of deficiency to aspire to perfection. Perfection expresses its existence by being present, while deficiency requires the energies of sincerity to the environment to discover and express it. Behind this lies deep sincerity and an aspiring flame for the reform that must occur.

Naguib Mahfouz surprises the journalist Suad Zahir (Roz Al-Youssef magazine, 1965) by saying: Women... are the key to artistic and literary development in particular, as their relationship with men is an essential element in every artistic work. Therefore, the angle from which women are taken in literary work becomes a measure of revealing the writer's position on development.

Naguib Mahfouz affirms his love for literature in an interview with Mahmoud El-Khatib (Al-Tali'a Magazine, July 1977), saying to Khatib that you would sacrifice anything for your love of football, and that's exactly how literature is for me.

When Aisha Abul-Nour asks him (Akhbar Al-Saa'a Magazine, August 6, 1980) about youth literature? He answers: it is the literature of the future.

Hala Al-Badri (Radio and Television Magazine, December 4, 1982) asks him: Why is the renaissance in literature associated with certain eras more than others? The answer is: There are times when everything is on the rise in politics, thought, and art, like the era of Al-Ma'mun, and times that were closed, ignorant, and autocratic, where everything was declining, like the Turkish era, as one example.

Naguib Mahfouz believes, in his conversation with Saleh Morsi (Al-Musawwir Magazine, February 3, 1984), that television's duty now is to focus on literature. A program that discusses a book every week or holds a contest to discuss this book, with prizes being a collection of books, could stimulate the literary movement in Egypt. At the same time, it should announce new books, and television should not consider this as advertising, because its duty at this stage is to promote high culture and thought.

In an interview with Imad El-Ghazali (Al-Wafd Newspaper, August 27, 1987), Naguib Mahfouz believes that the literary voice is one of the influential voices in changing society. However, its influence is limited because it affects educated readers. Consider, for example, the illiteracy rate in society, then the number of educated individuals who do not read, who are "illiterate" to some extent, to understand the limitations of this influence. Fortunately, this small portion has a significant impact on many others in society, meaning that its direct influence is limited. For example, President Gamal Abdel Nasser said he read "The Return of the Spirit" by Tawfiq Al-Hakim, and he read it along with several thousands, but Abdel Nasser himself affected millions of people. In addition to this, modern media has helped expand the sphere of influence for literature.