Against the dark background of this contemporary civilization of well-being, even the arts tend to mingle, to lose their identity.

But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty.

There is also poetry written to be shouted in a square in front of an enthusiastic crowd. This occurs especially in countries where authoritarian regimes are in power.

The real history, the one that counts and is not to be found in books, is precisely this one, the one made by simple men; and it is the only one that rules the world.

Evidently the arts, all the visual arts, are becoming more democratic in the worst sense of the word.

Man cannot produce a single work without the assistance of the slow, assiduous, corrosive worm of thought.

Poetry is the art which is technically within the grasp of everyone: a piece of paper and a pencil and one is ready.