Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

I am glad I have found a readership, but one can't write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper.

I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.

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

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

Our first love is always our last.

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.

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

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

For a long time I searched for the black stone that cleanses the soul of death.

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

In the '70s I was in exile; every time I went back I wondered if they'd take my passport away.

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

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.

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

There is an important erotic element in A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of the keys to understanding the Orient.

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.

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.

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

There are very few great poets in the world.

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

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

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

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

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

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

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

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.

I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context.

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

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

But bad manners or vulgar gestures can sometimes have a touch of poetry about them, just enough not to arouse one's indignation.

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

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

Don't worry, life is good despite everything!

I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity.

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

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

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

Emigration is no longer a solution; it's a defeat. People are risking death, drowning every day, but they're knocking on doors that are not open.

In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time.

I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.