Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Related Quotes:

" I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context. "

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

" I am a Moroccan writer of French expression. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

" 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

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

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

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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. "

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

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

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

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

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

" 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

" 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

" Beauty is first and foremost an emotion. "

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

" 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

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

" 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 The World

" 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

" 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