And now I am ready to keep running When the sun rises beyond the borderlands of death. I already see mountain ridges in the heavenly forest Where, beyond every essence, a new essence awaits.

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.

The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history.

The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.

The soul exceeds its circumstances.

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.

Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.

The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.

When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.

I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy

I just want to take advantage of every day that I'm in the lineup.

It won't take weeks... Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no question that it will.

It was an unwritten law that black comics were not permitted to work white nightclubs. You could sing and you could dance, but you couldn't stand flat-footed and talk; that was a no-no.

You are only as good as your team.

My feeling is if you're going to be a leader, you have to carefully assess where people are and where people want to go.

The earth opens impartially her bosom to receive the beggar and the prince.

The measure of your holiness is proportionate to the goodness of your will.

The conflict of chemistry we do not think reprehensible. If we could look at social conflict as neither good nor bad, but simply a fact, we should make great strides in our thinking.

Songwriting is best. It's the hardest ... finest ... tightest. It also requires the most discipline.

You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.