Reading is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.

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.

Taking time to look back, is a foundation on course to build a stable future.

I can be both of us at once so no one will have to miss her, most of all me. I I

She laughed so easily when she was happy. But also when she was sad.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.

Being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol' dark night of the soul a hug. Howl the eternal yes!

Our life is...a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.

Even monkeys fall out of trees.

In my opinion it is less shameful for a king to be overcome by force of arms than by bribery.

I did take composition lessons when I was in high school, so I wrote piano pieces. I wrote some chamber music. I don't think any of that was particularly interesting.

The people of Britain want a Home Secretary who will give them back their streets. They want a Home Secretary who will speak up for the victim, not the criminal.