Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

In the '70s I was in exile; every time I went back I wondered if they'd take my passport away.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Time, Away, Wondered

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

Courage, Try, Keep

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

Work, Important, Impossible

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

Respect, Through, Turn

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Justice, Desire, Characters

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

Work, Hope, Leave

My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Toward, Writers, Steers

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

Freedom, Today, Old

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

Work, Alone, Hard

Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Poetry, Words, Highly

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

Poetry, Words, Vision

The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Best, Doubt, Give

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

Women, Men, Power

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

Knowledge, Desire, Healthy

There are very few great poets in the world.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Great, Few, Poets

There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Between, Arab, Gulf

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Mother, Words, Universe

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, Different, Country

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, Loved, Outside

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, State, Mediocrity

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

Fear, Through, Speak

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, Equal, West

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

War, End, Everything

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Biography

Nationality: French

Type: Poet

Born: December 1, 1944

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