On the day the world ends A bee circles a clover, A fisherman mends a glimmering net.

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

Sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight.

The earth doesn't move backward (very much) when you walk only because it's much more massive than you are.

All of us every single year, we're a different person. I don't think we're the same person all our lives.

The world demands that you work for it, make families, provide, take no time to listen to your own heart beating.

The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative.

To paint a mass simple and big you must keep out all the lights and darks that do not belong to its general value.

The first job of a writer is to be honest.

There's no show business in Canada, so everybody just did stand-up and we all thought, "Oh, we'll just keep doing stand-up." And then I'm like, "There's more work in the States."

To create something beautiful about despair or out of a feeling of despair is for me the most hopeful life affirming thing a person can do

Who knows whether it is not true that phosphorus and mind are not the same thing?