I was born in a family of landless peasants, in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo, on the right bank of the Almonda River, around a hundred kilometres north-east of Lisbon.

The world is governed by institutions that are not democratic - the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO.

I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.

People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it's only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich.

The novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers.

The U.S. needs to control the Middle East, the gateway to Asia. It already has military installations in Uzbekistan.

Words that come from the heart are never spoken, they get caught in the throat and can only be read in ones's eyes.

A journey never ends. Only the travellers end.

What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of a human being?

We use words to understand each other and even, sometimes, to find each other.

No human being can achieve all he or she desires in this life except in dreams, so good night all.

Ideas love speed

If you’re treating people poorly then you're not emulating God’s love. God always resides with the broken hearted.

Hate yearned to destroy and sought to forget, but love could not. Love strove creatively towards days that had yet to come.

Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.

Miracle is the ability God has given you.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome trying to succeed.

I suppose that's the European way, dangerous and hairy.

Although I always loved reading and putting words on paper, I never thought about becoming a writer until I was twelve.

The juices never stop flowing. I still write songs.

Some walks you have to take alone.