I am glad to have found a readership, but one can’t write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. A writer creates an imaginary world that he transmits to others.

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

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

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 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.

A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.