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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters The pulse of the pen
A young man recently asked me: "How are you able to write of people's hope and pain, their joys and sorrows, in this way?" He added: "We see ourselves in everything you write, as if you were living the minute details of our daily life."
I have lived with people and shared their concerns. Every beat of society's pulse has resonated in my heart and overwhelmed me. Society, politics, daily life... I lived through every event with the people; their worries and aspirations were my own. Naturally, when I wrote, these feelings were reflected in my work. Must the writer belong, heart and soul, to a society? Only if he wishes his work to express something of that society.
Without even wanting or intending to, I found myself living people's problems. These problems were my daily life, and the beating of my heart. Without this experience, my work would have been entirely subjective, centred on my own feelings, desires, and dislikes: I would have been my own society.
I consider that what I have written comes entirely from the people, and not from any gift or literary sensitivity I may have had. It is true that many people have gone through the same experiences as me, without necessarily writing about them in the same way or, for that matter, receiving a Nobel for their pains. Ultimately, one's way of writing comes down to what happens between the writer, the pen and the paper, behind that locked door, in that empty room.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
