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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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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. "

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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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. "

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" 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. "

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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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" Beauty is first and foremost an emotion. "

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

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

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

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

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" 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. "

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" I am a Moroccan writer of French expression. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

" 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

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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

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

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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. "

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. "

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" 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

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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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