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" 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

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

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

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

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

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" 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. "

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

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

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

" I am a Moroccan writer of French expression. "

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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. "

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. "

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. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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

" 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. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun