When this is over, I'm not going to be the same guy. I am going to live as if I were a great man.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

A poet sees things in two ways: First, as a child who never saw it before, and Second, as a dying man who will never see it again.

You don't fight to protect warships or old men. Like the book says, you fight to save your civilization. And so often it seems that civilization is composed mainly of the things women and children want.

...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes.

It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.

Things are going to go wrong, and I think we are false to life if we don’t portray it. But there is also the hope that some lucky clown is going to come along and stumble into the gold mine. And I think you are also entitled to hold out that hope.