“Rhythm must have meaning.”

Wars are made to make debt.

A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression.

There is natural ignorance and there is artificial ignorance. I should say at the present moment the artificial ignorance is about eighty-five per cent.

If a patron buys from an artist who needs money (needs money to buy tools, time, food), the patron then makes himself equal to the artist; he is building art into the world; he creates.

If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.

A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.

With one day’s reading a man may have the key in his hands.

And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass.

Glance is the enemy of vision.

Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing.

Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity.

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.

To say that a state cannot pursue its aims because there is no money, is like saying that an engineer cannot build roads, because there are no kilometers.

Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance, poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.

If a man isn’t willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he’s no good.

Genius, is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.

I see myself as a man who is searching for meaning in life. This is rather different from being a staunch believer in something.

To conjure with the passive culture and adapt to its rules is to degrade and deny the fullness of our meaning and intention.

For me, every translation is a new book, with the translator inevitably broadening the meaning of the original book in any translation.

Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man’s entire relation to God and to his neighbor.

If you look around to find meaning in everything that happens you will end up disappointed.

Her words are effortless in terms of their meaning and how she inhabits them.

My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? My art gives meaning to my life.

I wanted to write some lyrics that had some meaning to them, lyrics that were meaningful to me and hopefully people can take something from that.