Quotes from Tahar Ben Jelloun

We have no Arab intellectuals of international stature because we live in a state of generalized mediocrity. We are suspended in the pit without touching the bottom.

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

There is a gulf between the Arab peoples and Arab intellectuals.

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

What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.

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.

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

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

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

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 other side.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 complicity.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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