There is an important erotic element in A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of the keys to understanding the Orient.

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

Most of those who died did not die of hunger but of hatred. Feeling hatred diminishes you. It eats at your from within and attacks the immune system. When you have hatred inside you, it always crushes you in the end.

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

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

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.

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.