Hiller presented Szabó with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates. He told the writer that the happy atmosphere of middle-class family life in her books brought back memories of his own childhood.
Szabó presented Hiller with a signed copy of her book The Door.
Asked to reveal her secret for longevity, Szabó said patience.
"No matter what conflict or stressful situation arises in life, it is only a matter of time and things will sort themselves out," she said. It is also important to strive for peacefulness and accept others, which is a crucial element of inner harmony.
Silence is the most important thing in life, she added.
Szabó said she still spends several hours writing every day. Currently she is preparing a sequel to Für Alise, published in 2002.
Szabó was born in Debrecen on October 5, 1917. She graduated from the University of Debrecen as a teacher of Latin and Hungarian. Afterward, she taught in secondary schools in Debrecen and Hódmezővásárhely. Between 1945 and 1949 she was worked in the Ministry of Religion and Education.
She married the writer and translator Tibor Szobotka in 1947.
She began her writing career as a poet, publishing her first book, Lamb, in 1947. This was followed by Back to the human in 1949. In the same year, she was awarded the Baumgarten Prize, which was withdrawn for political reasons. She was fired from the ministry in the same year.
Between 1949 and 1958, Hungary's communist regime did not allow her works to be published, and, as her husband had also lost his job for political reasons, she returned to teaching. During this period, she wrote her first novel, Fresco. The book, which was not published until 1958, met with overwhelming success.
In 1978, Szabó was presented with the Kossuth Prize, Hungary's highest honour for artists.
Szabó's works have been published in more than 40 countries around the world, and she has won numerous prizes in Hungary and abroad. In 2003, she was awarded Frances's Prix Femina Étranger for best foreign novel.
Her novel Abigail was chosen as the 6th most popular novel in the Hungarian version of The Big Read. Three more of her novels made the top hundred in the list: Für Elise, An Old-fashioned Story and The Door.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
