“Religious faith always transcends culture, and is the integrating principle and power of man's cultural striving.”

“Culture derives its meaning from man's faith in God; it is never an end in itself, but always a means of expressing one's religious faith.”

“Since man is a moral being, his culture cannot be a-moral. Because man is a religious being, his culture, too, must be religiously oriented.”

“Poetry transcends the nation-state. Poetry transcends government. It brings the traditional concept of power to its knees. I have always believed poetry to be an eternal conversation in which the ancient poets remain contemporary, a conversation inviting us into other languages and cultures even as poetry transcends language and culture, returning us again and again to primal rhythms and sounds.”

“Religious faith represents so uncompromising a misuse of the power of our minds that it forms a kind of perverse, cultural singularity ― a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible.”

“For while spirituality has the dynamic to transcend and transform culture, it invariably expresses itself in and through culture.”