Quotes by Tahar Ben Jelloun

About Tahar Ben Jelloun:

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan writer. The entirety of his work is written in French, although his first language is Arabic. He became known for his 1985 novel L’Enfant de Sable (The Sand Child). Today he lives in Paris and continues to write. He has been named as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Pain, too, comes from depths that cannot be revealed. We do not know whether those depths are in ourselves or elsewhere, in a graveyard, in a scarcely dug grave, only recently inhabited by withered flesh. This truth, which is banal enough, unravels t...

Tahar Ben Jelloun

I have at least the whole of my life to answer a question: Who am I? And who is the other? A gust of wind at dawn? A motionless landscape? A trembling leaf? A coil of white smoke above a mountain? I write all these words and I hear the wind, not outs...

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Did my father talk to me? It's true, he didn't say a lot to me, but I knew what had to be done. No need for big speeches. He taught me the fundamentals of our religion: My son, Islam is simple: you are alone responsible for yourself before God, so if...

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 am a Moroccan writer of French expression.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings.

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

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

I am a guest of the French language. My poems in French are born of my interaction with the French language, which is not the same as that of a French poet.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

Tahar Ben Jelloun

I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

We must stop posing as victims of the West and behaving negatively towards the West. We must participate with the West on an equal footing in the reconstruction of the world.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Author Bio

  • NameTahar Ben Jelloun
  • DescriptionMoroccan writer and poet
  • BornDecember 1, 1944
  • CountryMorocco
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Psychotherapist; Novelist
  • WorksThe Sand Child; This Blinding Absence Of Light;
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Legion Of Honour; Grand Officer Of The Legion Of Honour; Commander Of The National Order Of Merit; Prix Goncourt