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" 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
Myself
I Feel
I Am
Related Quotes:
" I liked Sartre's views but not his writing. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Sartre
His
Writing
" 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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Speak
New
Say
" I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Thought
Security
Sexuality
" 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
Alone
Work
Stand
" 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
I Can
Use
Take
" I am a Moroccan writer of French expression. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
I Am
Writer
French
" It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Our
Turn
Own
" 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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
People
Day
Every Day
" Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Politics
Stay
Religion
" Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Friendship
Real
Like
" I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Change
Change The World
Poetry
" In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Possible
See
Time
" There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Arab
Gulf
Between
" Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Lasts
Forever
Nothing
" I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Commitment
Funny
Life
" 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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Power
People
Men
" 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
Women
Enjoy
Immigrants
" In the '70s I was in exile; every time I went back I wondered if they'd take my passport away. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Take
Exile
Time
" 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
Power
Country
Hold
" The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Healthy
Knowledge
World
" I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Love
Life
Mars
" 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
Chosen
World
Vision
" Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Mathematics
Poetry
Words
" 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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
People
Today
Freedom
" 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
Speak
World
Out
" At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Students
Army
Injustice
" My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Hope
Create
Investment
" 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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Stop
Must
Posing
" The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Human
Errors
Religions
" 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
Live
Because
Mediocrity