“I’m optimistic because I’m pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.”

We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France

Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.

Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d’etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.

Algeria is not breaking up.

I spent 24 and a half years in prison

In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well.

The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all.

Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16.

I think that they participated in something that was not very proper and was very pitiful, not only for the Algerian people, but also for the other people who counted on our support.

This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.

Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries – like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain – to occupy countries outside of Europe.

Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there.

I was one of the organisers of its struggle for liberation. I likewise actively participated in all the struggles for liberation.

This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.

I’m 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn’t changed; it’s the same fervour that drives me.

Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip.

The easiest and quickest path into the esteem of traditional military authorities is by the appeal to the eye, rather than to the mind. ‘The polish and pipeclay’ school is not yet extinct, and it is easier for the mediocre intelligence to become an authority on buttons, than on tactics.

Under Syrian law, a journalist is not allowed to report on military matters. This may be wrong or right, but that’s just the way it is.

For even the best of peace training is more theoretical than practical experience … indirect practical experience may be the more valuable because infinitely wider.

While the nominal strength of a country is represented by its numbers and resources, this muscular development is dependent on the state of its internal organs and nerve-system – upon its stability of control, morale, and supply.

People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do. We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it’s more like entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in a country without an army.

I find skydiving really hard. I broke my back while skydiving when I was in the military, and for 18 months all my nightmares were about falling.

Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.