Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other.. view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

New ideas should confront old ideas. We must refer to the example of Europe. People have fought to make Europe what it is today. Freedom is not something that is served up on a plate... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

The power of the word in Morocco belonged to men and to the authorities. No one asked the point of view of poor people or women... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

We do not have many intellectuals who can speak out for us internationally. We have no writers who are recognized, respected and loved outside the Arab world... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

We have no Arab intellectuals of international stature because we live in a state of generalized mediocrity. We are suspended in the pit without touching the bottom... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

We must have our say, not through violence, aggression or fear. We must speak out calmly and forcefully. We shall only be able to enter the new world era if we agree to engage in dialogue with the other side... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

We must stop posing as victims of the West and behaving negatively towards the West. We must participate with the West on an equal footing in the reconstruction of the world... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

In the '70s I was in exile.. view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

There are very few great poets in the world... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Intellectuals try to keep going. But their situation is very difficult. Those who have had the courage to voice their opposition have often paid a very high price... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

It is impossible to disregard such an important medium as television. We should know how to use it, learn to work in it and express new values in it... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Emigration is no longer a solution.. view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I am a guest of the French language. My poems in French are born of my interaction with the French language, which is not the same as that of a French poet... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I am a Moroccan writer of French expression... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

In the Arab world, there is no link between the cultural habits of peoples and the ways of thinking and creating of modern intellectuals. They are two separate worlds... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I do not use the language of my people. I can take liberties with certain themes which the Arabic language would not allow me to take... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French.. view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I have written about the dispossessed, immigrants, the condition of women who do not enjoy the same legal rights as men, the Palestinians who are deprived of their land and condemned to exile... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun

I liked Sartre's views but not his writing... view

By: Tahar Ben Jelloun