Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it. For that reason, it is not unfair that one disobedience in a garden should contaminate all humanity; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew should be sufficient to save it.

Best thing to happen for a poet. A fine death, no? An impressive death.

You don't have to try to be contemporary. You are already contemporary. What one has in mythology is being evolved all the time. Personally, I think I can do with Greek and Old Norse mythology. For example, I don't think I stand in need of planes or of railways or of cars.

We did meet forty years ago. At that time we were both influenced by Whitman and I said, jokingly in part, 'I don't think anything can be done in Spanish, do you?' Neruda agreed, but we decided it was too late for us to write our verse in English. We'd have to make the best of a second-rate literature.

Imprecision is tolerable and verisimilar in literature, because we always tend towards it in life.

Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is.

I have committed the worst of sins one can commit... I have not been happy.