Poetry remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art.

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.

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

I write and that way rid myself of me and then at last I can rest.

I feel like I still am struggling in a lot of different ways. I still have to fight for certain things. Certain jobs. At least I'm working and I'm thankful for that.

Living in the capital, I worry about terrorism, but I no longer panic. For this I have my child to thank.

Your cells are as depressed as you are, and your cells are as happy and frisky as you are.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world.

I write, not for children,but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.

Promiscuity is like never reading past the first page. Monogamy is like reading the same book over and over.

What do we lose by another's good fortune? Let us celebrate with them, or strive to emulate them. That should be our desire and determination.

If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all.