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Latifa al-Zayyat
12 quotes
“In the novel, I aimed at crystallizing three levels of significance. The first one deals with the development of the female protagonist, and its related to the second which deals with developments in Egypt at that period. As for the third level, it incorporates a commentary on the values of the middle class and its practices and how they prevent the country from a take off.”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I trembled with feelings of powerlessness, of misery, of oppression, as the bullets of the police killed fourteen demonstrators that day. I screamed for my inability to act, I screamed for my inability to go down to the street to stop the bullets from coming out of the black guns. I shed the child in me and the young woman came of age — prematurely — for I encountered knowledge that went beyond the home to include all of the homeland. My future fate was decided at that moment.”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There had been a time when she had regarded Gamila with a touch of disdain. She had considered herself stronger than Gamila, than her aunt, than her father—and stronger than their beliefs, their rules, their traditions. She had laughed with a certain superiority when her mother had said, "The one who knows the fundamentals does not suffer." Yes. She had existed for a time in the shadow of this silly illusion. But in truth it was she who was silly, trivial, conceited, and despicable. She was the doormat beneath people's soles. (Chapter Nine)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love you, and I want you to love me. But I do not want you to lose yourself in me, or in anyone. Nor do I want you to draw your self-confidence and your trust in life from me or from anyone else. I want you to have your own individual, independent self, and the confidence that can only spring from the self, not from others. Then -When you have achieved that - no one will ever be able to crush you. (Chapter Fourteen)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With a final glance at the dark room in which she had been held, she walked forward, light welling up around her, afraid of no one, returning the blows that came her way, and then walking on.... (Chapter Fourteen)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One moment, please." [he] said. "There is a small matter to which I want to draw your attention before you leave." Layla faced him, staying near the door. He stood up, gazing down at her for a moment before speaking. "Many people call themselves intellectuals yet mock and belittle the principles and traditions that are ours. But you must realize that these fundamentals are what bind us to the land. Without them we would be like a tree without roots-the slightest breeze could sway it, and even knock it to the ground." (Chapter Sixteen)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time passed. And time blunts the sharp edges of our experiences, and attenuates the threads that bind us to them, day by day, so that the most wounding of events becomes ordinary, indistinguishable almost, part of what defines daily life, to be embraced rather than pushed away. (Chapter Twenty-Two)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The streets of Port Said were packed with people, colliding waves, as if all its homes had emptied themselves, tossing the inhabitants into the street, wave after wave, to blend into a turbulent human sea. People laughed, or wept without knowing what sort of tears these were. Were they tears of joy at their rescue? Or tears of the painful memories that suddenly came to the surface on evacuation day? Or tears that gazed into a better future? (Chapter Thirty)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[about a monument for Ferdinand de Lesseps] It was a symbol of the ages of slavery and colonialism that they had inherited, a symbol that pulled them back into a loathsome past, that put a barrier between them and a finer future. That symbol must be shattered. (Chapter Thirty)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[She] yelled, "Rules! We must follow the fundamentals!" Then she corrected herself. "The foundation - that is what is important." (Chapter Thirty)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[She] dropped her arms and felt a lovely peacefulness creeping into her body, a tranquility more lovely and deeper than the bubbly happiness that had filled her. She looked at [him] and smiled. She took a step, [his] eyes never leaving her. No, it was not the same glow as before. It was new. There had been that flash of light that had gone out, the sun on an overcast day. This was quiet and warm and steady, a light that emanated from within. (Chapter Thirty)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“February 21, 1946. Seven o'clock in the evening: the tranquil sky bore a pleasant coolness, and there was a clean purity to the air as if the heavens had poured down rain and washed the earth. Yet Cairo was not its normal, brightly lit self; its main streets were not choked with the usual crowds streaming through the cinema houses, shops, and cafes, or congregating at bus and tramway stops. The cinema houses were on strike, and so were other businesses, and no buses or trams were running. Police cars and vans slunk along streets packed with rifle-bearing soldiers. The few civilians in sight walked slowly in the streets or stood at intersections, knots of two, three, or four engaged in conversation. One could hear all sorts of dialects and levels of education in their speech, but every exchange turned upon the same subject, that morning's events in Ismailiya Square. (beginning of Chapter One)”
Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source