The official independence celebration was going to be held over four or five days, and a group of journalists from all over the world was allowed to fly in, because Angola was closed otherwise.

I remember that during the period leading up to independence in Angola in 1975, I was the only correspondent there at all for three months.

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

The tradition of Russian literature is also an eastern tradition of learning poetry and prose by heart.

Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve.

More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Everywhere, the sun.

Photographing expresses human desire to preserve passing time. It is like a man struggling with time that elapses, and in general - a desire to preserve oneself.

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.

Our job is like a baker's work - his rolls are tasty as long as they're fresh; after two days they're stale; after a week, they're covered with mould and fit only to be thrown out.

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

At the end of the story of my life, I want to say it was the best book I had ever read.

I have to concentrate on my son. That's why I have lovers right now and not a boyfriend. I don't want my son to start calling somebody Daddy unless that person's gonna stay.

The WTO has one of the most impressive records in global economic governance, by promoting trade liberalisation and economic development.

The literary world is so full of pretension, and there's such an enormous gap between how seriously poets take themselves and how widely they're ignored by everybody else.

Murphy's golden rule: Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.

The White House is saying Donald Trump has 'zero percent chance' of being elected. Isn't that a little high?

Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.

You have a unique message to deliver, a unique song to sing, a unique act of love to bestow. This message, this song, and this act of love have been entrusted exclusively to the one and only you.

In all my research I have never come across matter. To me the term matter implies a bundle of energy which is given form by an intelligent spirit.

We're characters not of this world, so our knowledge about stuff, that other character's don't have, is quite fun.