Quote

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.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tahar Ben Jelloun
Age: 76
Born: 1947
Born: December 1
Novelist
Poet
Psychotherapist
Writer
Fes
Morocco
States
Suspended
Live
Pits
Without
Arab
Mediocrity
Touching
International
Generalized
Bottom
Intellectuals
State
Stature

More quotes by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Image
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
Image
I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
We do not have many intellectuals who can speak out for us internationally. We have no writers who are recognized, respected and loved outside the Arab world.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
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
Image
This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
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
Image
There is an important erotic element in A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of the keys to understanding the Orient.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
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.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Image
I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.
Tahar Ben Jelloun