Life and death have been lacking in my life.

So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.

Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.

I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.

I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.

The worst labyrinth is not that intricate form that can entrap us forever, but a single and precise straight line

The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.

Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.

I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.

The original is unfaithful to the translation.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

You can like people and still betray them, if it was for a cause you believed in passionately enough. You have to betray other people rather than betray yourself--if that's what it comes to.

After a lifetime of world travel I've been fascinated that those in the third world don't have the same perception of reality that we do.

Some people don't want to be morally consistent. They just want to be tied to their one issue.

You must have the guts to throw off the chains of modesty and mediocrity in order to be the light that the world needs.

It is interesting that so many people who become disenchanted, who protest against their own organizations, are people who contributed something to them and then saw how it was misused.

Never let the darkness or negativity outside affect your inner self. Just wait until morning comes and the bright light will drown out the darkness.

When you gotta go through something tough, I've always been a guy that just wants to get it out of the way.

Often an idea has impact far larger than the person who originated it.

Experiencing flow helps a person remember that they are unique. ... Just like everyone else.