I have entitled this account: “A Fugitive without knowing it.” Or not yet knowing it. At least up to that precise moment when I recounted these comings and goings of women of distant or recent times in flight… Up to the moment when, in Madrid, I grew aware of it: from then on I became conscious of my permanent state of fugitive –I would even add: of being rooted in flight – for the very reason that I write and in order that I might write. [Assia Djebar, in speaking of one of her recently published essays]

[J'ai intitulé cette suite de remarques: “fugitive et ne le sachant pas”. Ou ne le sachant pas encore. Du moins jusqu'à cet instant précis où je relate ces allers et venues de femmes fuyantes du passé lointain ou récent… A l'instant où, à Madrid, je le constate: désormais je prends conscience de ma condition permanente de fugitive –j'ajouterais même: d'enracinée dans la fuite – justement parce que j'écris et pour que j'écrive.]