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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. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Chosen
World
Vision
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" The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge. "
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" I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
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" 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
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Hold
" 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
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Same
Language
" 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
" 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
World
War
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" My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Passionate
Driven
Justice
" My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Sensibility
Who
Toward
" 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
" 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
Know
Values
Impossible
" I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Prayer
Others
Night
" Beauty is first and foremost an emotion. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Beauty
Foremost
First
" 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
" There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Arab
Gulf
Between
" There are very few great poets in the world. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
World
Great
Few
" 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
" Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Friendship
Real
Like
" 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
" An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Voice
Individual
Heard
" 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
" 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
" 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
" I am a Moroccan writer of French expression. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
I Am
Writer
French
" I liked Sartre's views but not his writing. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Sartre
His
Writing
" 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
" For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Me
History
Situation
" The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Doubt
Thought
Man
" I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter. "
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Love
Life
Mars
" 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
" 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