The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings.

A hungry stomach cannot hear.

After the magical act accomplished by Joyce with Ulysses, perhaps we are getting away from it.

I have written about the dispossessed, immigrants, the condition of women who do not enjoy the same legal rights as men, the Palestinians who are deprived of their land and condemned to exile.

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

It is no use painting the foot of the tree white, the strength of the bark cries out from beneath the paint.

Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.

We have gotten away from this double aspect of either putting the character back into historical events or of making a historical event of his very life.

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

But where are the snows of yester year?

If one of two lovers is loyal, and the other jealous and false, how may their friendship last, for Love is slain!

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

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.

Dressed in the lion’s skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.

All confessions are Odysseys.

I liked Sartre’s views but not his writing.

Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.

Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people.

When Ulysses hears his own story sung by an epic poet and then he reveals his identity and the poet wants to continue singing, Ulysses isn’t interested any longer. That’s very astonishing.

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.