Novels and stage plays

By Naguib mahfouz

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I have written five plays and people often ask me why I didn't write more. The answer is simple. I do not choose the form of my story telling. The story comes to me wrapped in its own form. This is how I write. The entire process, the selection of form and content, happens simultaneously. Some ideas impose their own style, realistic or dreamy, symbolic or matter-of-fact.

I fell in love with the theatre when I was young. I used to go to performances by Fatemah Rushdi and Youssef Wahbi. In the sixties, I followed closely the work of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Abdel Rahman Al-Sharqawi, Alfred Farag, Youssef Idris and Mikhael Roman. Every writer does things his or her own way. You follow your heart and it takes you to a certain style and vehicle of expression. Most of the ideas that come to my mind gravitate to the novel form.

Some people have the full outline of the novel before they write the first line. This is not how things are with me. I start with a rudimentary beginning and take it from there.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.