Quotes from Alifa Rifaat

Daughter, I'm not crying now because I'm fed up or regret that the Lord created me a woman. No, it's not that. It's just that I'm sad about my life and my youth that have come and gone without my knowing how to live them really and truly as a woman. knowing how to live them really and truly as a woman.

Only half-aware of the movements of his body, she turned her head to one side and stared up at the ceiling, where she noticed a spider's web.

In an instant between sleep and wakefulness, an instant outside the bounds of time, that gave the sensation of being eternal, the sounds of night, like slippery fishes passing through the mesh of a net, registered themselves on Zennouba's hearing, filtering gradually into her awakening consciousness: