Tahar Ben Jelloun

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

In the '70s I was in exile; every time I went back I wondered if they'd take my passport away.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.

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.

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power.

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.

It is impossible to disregard such an important medium as television. We should know how to use it, learn to work in it and express new values in it.

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.

There are very few great poets in the world.

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.

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.

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

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.

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.