I love language as I love life itself!

I’m no good for anything except taking the world apart and putting it together again (and I manage the latter less and less frequently).

The first problem of the media is posed by what does not get translated, or even published in the dominant political languages.

Peace is only possible when one of the warring sides takes the first step, the hazardous initiative, the risk of opening up dialogue, and decides to make the gesture that will lead not only to an armistice but to peace.

In Algeria, I had begun to get into literature and philosophy. I dreamed of writing-and already models were instructing the dream, a certain language governed it.

I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.

These years of the Ecole Normale were an ordeal. Nothing was handed to me on the first try.