Even a polemic has some justification if one considers that my own first poetic experiments began during a dictatorship and mark the origin of the Hermetic movement.

The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.

The poet does not fear death, not because he believes in the fantasy of heroes, but because death constantly visits his thoughts and is thus an image of a serene dialogue.

Poetry is also the physical self of the poet, and it is impossible to separate the poet from his poetry.

Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal but which the reader recognizes as his own.

The poet's other readers are the ancient poets, who look upon the freshly written pages from an incorruptible distance. Their poetic forms are permanent, and it is difficult to create new forms which can approach them.

The Resistance is a moral certainty, not a poetic one. The true poet never uses words in order to punish someone. His judgment belongs to a creative order; it is not formulated as a prophetic scripture.