Quotes from Nawal El Saadawi

Education should be totally secular. I am not telling people not to believe in God, but it should be a personal matter which should be done at home.

Revolutionary men with principles were not really different from the rest. They used their cleverness to get, in return for principles, what other men buy with their money.

I knew I hated him as only a woman can hate a man, as only a slave can hate his master.

Many people come here and they think my apartment is a poor relative to my name. But you cannot be radical and have money, it's impossible.

If you do not love yourself, well, you cannot do anything well, that's my philosophy.

All revolutions in history have obstacles.

In history, the millions win; that is democracy.

All revolutions in history have obstacles. There is not a revolution that succes.

Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

My three husbands were afraid of me. I am a very powerful woman.

I don't think that people in power can be convinced by words or articles. They will never give it up by choice.

Home is where you are appreciated, safe and protected, creative, and where you are loved - not where you are put in prison.

We here in Egypt are fed up with U.S. colonialism.

Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself.

You know, I look to myself mainly as a creative writer all my life and a medical doctor.

Women in most countries have not achieved much, because they can't be liberated under the patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist and military system that determines the way we live now, and which is governed by power, not justice, by false democracy, not real freedom.

A lot of women are afraid of loneliness, so when they see a woman who can live alone, then they think, 'Hmm, I can do that.' But you need an example, and that is why I am proud to say I have divorced three husbands.

When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.

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.

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?

Love has made me a different person. It has made the world beautiful.

I am becoming more radical with age. I have noticed that writers, when they are old, become milder. But for me it is the opposite. Age makes me more angry.

Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies.

To have arrived at the truth means that one no longer fears death. For death and truth are similar in that they both require a great courage if one wishes to face them.