I've always regretted that I'm made of contradictions. But, if contradiction is impossible to overcome, we have to accept both its ends.

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

Life is full of change, honey. That's how we learn and grow. When we're born, the Good Lord gives each of us a Life book. Chapter by chapter, we live and learn.

Some things sound better if they don't come from you.

Never bet the devil your head.

There are no new stressful thoughts. They're all recycled.

Becoming Father the Nurturer rather than just Father the Provider enables a man to fully feel and express his humanity and his masculinity. Fathering is the most masculine thing a man can do.

Being president of a major public university is the most political nonpolitical office around.

No praise, no blame. Just so.

Corporate nationalism to me is a little bit like what would have happened if Hitler had won. It's scary stuff. It's totalitarianism in a different from, under a different flavour.

I don't think I've ever seen a person having a serious conversation on a cellphone. It's like a kiddie thing, a complete time waster.

To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.