I do not write for the reader to come, but for him who is here, short of reading the text on my shoulder.

My first two books did nada. I ended up paying the publishers.

I think the only positive thing that came from Uruguays dictatorship was the spread of Montevideo natives around the world, and I continued writing about them from my various places of exile.

We are born sad and we die sad, but meanwhile we love bodies whose sad beauty is a miracle.

Generosity is the only legitimate selfishness.

An intellectuals weapon is writing, but sometimes people react as if it were a firearm. A writer can do a lot to change the situation, but as far as I know, no dictatorship has fallen because of a sonnet.

When I have worries, fears or a love affair, I have the luck of being able to transform it into a poem.