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" 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
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" 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
" 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
Language
Parents
Different
" Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Friendship
Real
Like
" Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Other
Than
Egypt
" My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Sensibility
Who
Toward
" 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
" Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Lasts
Forever
Nothing
" 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
Voice
Situation
Keep Going
" Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Mathematics
Poetry
Words
" At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Students
Army
Injustice
" There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Arab
Gulf
Between
" 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
" 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
" 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 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
" 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
" Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Politics
Stay
Religion
" Beauty is first and foremost an emotion. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Beauty
Foremost
First
" 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
" The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Human
Errors
Religions
" 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
" 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
" 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
" In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Possible
See
Time
" 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
" This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Universe
Well
Words
" The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Doubt
Thought
Man
" A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Civilization
Possible
Only
" 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
" 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
Habits
Creating
Thinking