Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.

The arrogance of poets is only a defense; doubt gnaws the greatest among them; they need our testimony to escape despair.

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.

What I fear is not being forgotten after my death, but, rather, not being enough forgotten. As we were saying, it is not our books that survive, but our poor lives that linger in the histories.

There is no accident in our choice of reading. All our sources are related.

I believe that only poetry counts ... A great novelist is first of all a great poet.

Doubt is nothing but a trivial agitation on the surface of the soul, while deep down there is a calm certainty.