Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

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

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

The power of the word in Morocco belonged to men and to the authorities. No one asked the point of view of poor people or women.

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.

Our steps invent the path as we proceed; behind us they leave no trace, only the void. So we shall always look ahead and trust our feet. They will take us as far as our minds will go... -- Tahar ben Jelloun

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.