Character Quotes by Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

“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

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

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

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

Our steps invent the path as we proceed; behind us they leave no trace, only the void. So we shall always look ahead and…

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

“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

“Our first love is always our last.”

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

There are very few great poets in the world.

— Tahar Ben Jelloun