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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“A novel related in a dungeon, in the presence of death, cannot have the same meaning, the same consequences, as it would when read… — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue. — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself. — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
I'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context. — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
Our steps invent the path as we proceed; behind us they leave no trace, only the void. So we shall always look ahead and trust our feet. They will take us as far as our minds will go... -- Tahar ben Jelloun — Tahar Ben Jelloun Copy Share
“Man is more noble dead than alive, because in returning to the earth he becomes earth, and nothing is nobler than the earth that… — Tahar ben Jelloun Copy Share Image
