“It is obvious that taking the country from a state of war to being a lawful state won’t be easy.”

When I was engaged in the struggle for my country, I was very young. My horizons were open.

I accommodated practically all of the liberation movements, including those of Latin America.

I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech.

I am not a Marxist, but I place myself resolutely at the left.

My life has been a bit special, this is true. I participated in the liberation of my country.

These are the multinationals, like General Motors and Nestle; these are the big industrial groups that weigh, on the monetary scale, much more than big countries like Egypt.

Let us all agree to die a little, or even completely so that African unity may not be a vain word

We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks.

Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies.

In two years, there were 22 military coups d’etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d’etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path.

Algeria was therefore only the beginning of something that was in development: this is why I say that it’s the global capitalist system that finally reacted against us.

I can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it’s from there that all those who fought left.

At that precise moment, several countries were still colonised or had barely overcome colonisation. This was the case in practically all of Africa. We supported them.

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.

A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.

If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.

We love people who can break our heart easily.

It is failure that is easy. Success is always hard.

If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.

Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful.