Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

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

Friendship, Poetry, Real

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

Life, Love, Friendship

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, Poetry, Through

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

Human, Mistake, Religions

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

Time, Same, Possible

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

Themselves, Possible, Exist

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Nothing, Forever, Lasts

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Beauty, Emotion, Foremost

Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Countries, Egypt, Suffered

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

Death, Defeat, Open

I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Writer, Expression, French

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

Work, Guilty, Nor

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, Men, Legal

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

Thinking, Two, Between

Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Religion, Politics, Heart

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

Individual, Voice, Heard

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

Real, Injustice, Students

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

Life, History, Poetry

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

Same, Language, Born

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

Parents, Different, Speak

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

Language, Arabic, Themes

I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Writing, Liked, Views

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Night, Others, Prayer

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

Life, Funny, Write

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

Thought, Security, Natural

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Biography

Nationality: French

Type: Poet

Born: December 1, 1944

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