I think that if poetry is not a personal act, it's a pamphlet.

People ask me why I am a feminist. Because I am a woman of freedom and equality and it is not possible to have freedom in the world when half of humanity has no rights. Because we are more than half of humanity. There are more women than men. This is not a fight of so-called "minorities."

Prizes aren't essential. What is essential is poetry itself, it's what is said, it is clarity, it's loyalty, those are the essential values, the literary values.

I think the obligation of a poet is not to be in an ivory tower; it is not to be isolated but to be among people.

I think that all my books are political, I think that I have a political body of work. I am essentially a political woman, but above all I am a poet. I am a poetess.

Men use women sexually. They use them, mistreat them, even from the point of view of vocabulary, the use of words. It baffles me.

I think that if poetry is not a personal act, it's a pamphlet.