“As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.”

“That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.”

“A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.”

“Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.”

“One cannot review a bad book without showing off.”

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.”

“Fate succombs many a species. One alone jeopardizes itself.”