Most of those who died did not die of hunger but of hatred. Feeling hatred diminishes you. It eats at your from within and attacks the immune system. When you have hatred inside you, it always crushes you in the end.

Religion has to stay in the heart, not in politics. It is private.

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused.

I am glad to have found a readership, but one can’t write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. A writer creates an imaginary world that he transmits to others.

People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work.