Leila Slimani

I don't listen to music. I know it's weird, and I have no explanation for that. But I never do.

— Leila Slimani

All fiction is based on truth - 'Madame Bovary' is based on a true story!

— Leila Slimani

I think maternal instinct is a male construct that has been used for centuries to keep women in their place, at home.

— Leila Slimani

You want your children to love the nanny, but at the same time, you want to stay the mother, and you want…

— Leila Slimani

The only way you can know someone is through their actions - you can never know what's going on inside them.

— Leila Slimani

Human darkness fascinates me; I find it intriguing. And there are few female characters who are explored in this light.

— Leila Slimani

I want to say that I can be Moroccan and speak about someone without speaking about his nationality. Because, you know, I…

— Leila Slimani

My two sisters and I had a very nice nanny at home in Morocco until I was 13. I remember my parents…

— Leila Slimani

Authors have a nationality; books do not.

— Leila Slimani

As a mother, you're only allowed to talk about the 'good' moments - not the ones when you've had enough and want…

— Leila Slimani

I had a nanny growing up in Morocco, and my parents encouraged me to put myself in her shoes sometimes.

— Leila Slimani

Motherhood is not only something very pure and very full of love, it can be full of dark things, too.

— Leila Slimani

You have to fight against all the things that will keep you out of writing, because life doesn't go with writing. You…

— Leila Slimani

When I was a little girl, my first link to the world was as a reader. Sometimes, I feel a nostalgia for…

— Leila Slimani

For me, it is freedom, freedom from everything: when I write, I'm not a woman. I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a…

— Leila Slimani

People don't want to treat their nannies subserviently. They don't want to act like bosses. And so nobody quite knows how to…

— Leila Slimani

People are not born evil, although we all have evil within us.

— Leila Slimani

That animal part of us, it's the most interesting part. It's everything that has to do with drives, with things we can't…

— Leila Slimani

I remember that the first time I looked at my son, of course I felt love. But I think the first feeling…

— Leila Slimani

I remember, when I was a teenager, people telling me, 'You know, when you are a mother, you will never feel lonely.…

— Leila Slimani

I grew up in Morocco. I was born a Muslim, and, every year, I celebrated Christmas in a big white house in…

— Leila Slimani

My parents were lovers of books, and they raised us in a manner that viewed freedom and subversion as indispensable.

— Leila Slimani

I love looking at pieces of art through the eyes of a child.

— Leila Slimani

When you live closely with people, you don't see who they really are. In particular, with nannies, they only exist in your…

— Leila Slimani

I just don't believe that a woman is naturally closer to her child than a man. Not at all.

— Leila Slimani