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Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes

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

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.

Tags: death, day, people, defeat

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

Tags: respect

About Author
Tahar Ben Jelloun (Arabic: الطاهر بن جلون; born in Fes, Morocco, 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer. All of his work is written in French although his first language is Darija. He became known for his 1985 novel L’Enfant de Sable (The Sand Child). He now lives in Paris, France, and continues to write. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private.

Tags: politics, religion

Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.

Tags: poetry, relationship, mathematics, words

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

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.

Tags: alone

My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave.

Tags: hope

The power of the word in Morocco belonged to men and to the authorities. No one asked the point of view of poor people or women.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

The power of the word in Morocco belonged to men and to the authorities. No one asked the point of view of poor people or women.

Tags: power, men, people

But you'll see, you can feel time on the wind it whips up as it passes. We don't worry about time or the wind. Nothing can touch us any more. As long as people remember us, we are here. Anyway, it's t...

Tahar Ben Jelloun

But you'll see, you can feel time on the wind it whips up as it passes. We don't worry about time or the wind. Nothing can touch us any more. As long as people remember us, we are here. Anyway, it's t...

Tags: death and dying

Man is more noble dead than alive, because in returning to the earth he becomes earth, and nothing is nobler than the earth that entombs us, closes our eyes, and blossoms in a beautiful eterneity.

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 entombs us, closes our eyes, and blossoms in a beautiful eterneity.

Tags: death, earth, life, noble, noblesse

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

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.

Tags: poetry, vision, words, world

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.

Tags: poetry, life, history, me

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

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.

Tags: legal, women, men, enjoy

The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge.

Tags: knowledge

I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity.

Tags: funny

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.

Tags: friendship, love, life, laughter

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tags: friendship, poetry, real, precious

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

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.

Tags: freedom

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 oth...

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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 oth...

Tags: fear

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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.

Tags: courage, keep going, voice, situation

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 comp...

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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 comp...

Tags: change, poetry, change the world