Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.

Without hope we are lost.

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read. They taught me I had a language in heaven and another language on earth.

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.

Sometimes I feel as if I am read before I write. When I write a poem about my mother, Palestinians think my mother is a symbol for Palestine. But I write as a poet, and my mother is my mother. She's not a symbol.

I want to find a language that transforms language itself into steel for the spirit--a language to use against these sparkling insects, these jets.

I've built my homeland, I've even founded my state - in my language.