Naguib Mahfouz

A city of silence and truth, where success and failure, murderer and victim, come together, where thieves and policemen lie side by side in peace for the first and last time.

You are now one of those who commit murder; you have a new identity now and a new destiny! You used to take precious goods-now you take worthless lives!"

She wanted to disguise her embarrassment with irony as usual, even if it was at her own expense.”

the death blocking his path, all the things that made Rauf's death an absolute necessity"

he silently acknowledged he did love her and that he would not hesitate to give his own life to bring her safely back.

Your envy and arrogance were aroused, so you rushed in headlong, as always, like a madman"

Why do people laugh, dance in triumph, feel recklessly secure in positions of power? Why do they not remember the true place in the scheme of things and their inevitable end?

She's forgotten too, that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity.

(Chapters 5, Page 30)

"It was that dog who betrayed me, in collusion with her. Then disaster followed disaster until finally my daughter rejected me"

Things are no longer what they used to be. In the past you were both a thief and my friend, for reasons you well know. Now the situation has changed. If you go back to burglary you'll be a thief and nothing else"

The Harafish is a labyrinth where the paths of the lowly and the noble intertwine.