Tahar Ben Jelloun is a famous Poet from France, he/she is 79 years old and still alive, born December 1, 1944.
Zodiac:
He/she is born under the zodiac sagittarius, who is known for Philosophical, Motion, Experimentation, Optimism.
Our collection contains 40 quotes who is written / told by Tahar.
40 Famous quotes by 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"
"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"
"Beauty is first and foremost an emotion"
"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"
"It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn"
"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"
"Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private"
"My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own"
"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"
"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"
"A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely"
"At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets"
"To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power"
"This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue"
"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"
"I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context"
"I liked Sartre's views but not his writing"
"I am a Moroccan writer of French expression"
"An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused"
"What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre"
"The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself"
"My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave"
"My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible"
"I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer"
"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"
"There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals"
"In the '70s I was in exile; every time I went back I wondered if they'd take my passport away"
"I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter"
"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"
"I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents"
"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"
"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"
"I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers"
"For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history"
"Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is"
"Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever"
"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"
"In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time"
"I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity"
"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"
