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.

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

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

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

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

In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time.

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.