Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

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Tahar Ben Jelloun

Profession : Poet

Birth : December 1, 1944

I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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.

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun