Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.

Don't ask who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.

For poetry there exists neither large countries nor small. Its domain is in the heart of all men.

How can you dare teach a man to read until you've taught him everything else first?

I think the Swedish Academy wished to manifest its solidarity with the living spirit of Greece today.