My God was never happiness, but to understand and be understood.

There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.

A man can laugh while he suffers.

My teachers [ had the most impact in my life]. Of course, my father and grandfather, but after my family, my teachers.

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

You cross a border and the policeman or the frontier policeman look at you, What are you doing here? Why are you coming? How long will you stay? Well, if I had nearly enough years, I would write a novel about being a refugee.

Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the happiness and humanity of the human being.