May Heaven exist, even if my place is Hell.

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.

I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.

The only thing worth thinking about, when I write a story, is whether I like it, whether I want to write it, whether it excites me.

Did you ever say yes to a pleasure? oh my friends, then you also said yes to all pain. all things are linked, entwined, in love with one another.

Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence.

It's in the dictionary. And when I find what it is, I'll write it down in case it comes up again, I'll be certain to avoid it.

Mistakes are a drag, because you get in the area of regret and self-pity.

Research suggests that investment bankers are more prone to commit fraud when they feel the competitor at their heels.

Anything that is of value in life only multiplies when it is given.

We do not always get what we want. Sometimes life presents us with surprises.

The way to war is a well-paved highway and the way to peace is still a wilderness.