Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes - Page 2

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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

Idaho, Doors, People

"Voice of the Maghreb". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 5, 2006.

28 Copy quote
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

Artist, People, Creative

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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

Vision, Glimpse, World

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Real, Army, Bullets

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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

Europe, Ideas, People

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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

Men, Rights, Land

17 Copy quote
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

Speaks Out, World, Speak

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I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Writing, Views

"Voice of the Maghreb" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 5, 2006.

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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

Writing, Parent, Different

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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, Average, World

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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, Creating

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Morocco

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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, Choir, Individual

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Mother, Tongue, Wells

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I am glad to have found a readership, but one can’t write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. A writer creates an imaginary world that he transmits to others.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Writing, World, Found

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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

Guilty, Continuing, Feels

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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

Important, Use, Television

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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

Sexuality, Natural, Linked

"Voice of the Maghreb". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 5, 2006.

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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

Country, People, Different

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I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Expression

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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

People, Liberty, Arabic Language

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Country, Egypt, Ordeals

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Exile, Passports, Ifs

"Voice of the Maghreb". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 5, 2006.

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Born: December 1, 1944
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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