Skip to content

Beneath the French language I hear the language of my father's mother. It is no longer silent.

— Leïla Sebbar

Another quote →

More quotes by Leïla Sebbar

Only there do I muster body and soul to span the two banks, both upstream and downstream.

I use writing to unify the two different languages my parents gave me.

I am there at the crossroads, serene at last, finally in my place; for I am a croisée seeking a connection; writing within a lineage, one that is always the same.

It is in fiction that I feel that I am a free subject (free of father, mother, clan, dogma) and strengthened by the burden of exile.

I want to hear them, write them in my mother's language, to gain access to the father, to the silence of his language — Arabic, the Arabic of my father.

All Leïla Sebbar quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Leïla Sebbar (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.