The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man's memory. That is our duty. If we don't fulfill it, we feel unhappy. A writer or any artist has the sometimes joyful duty to transform all that into symbols. These symbols could be colors, forms or sounds. For a poet, the symbols are sounds and also words, fables, stories, poetry... The work of a poet never ends. It has nothing to do with working hours. You are continuously receiving things from the external world. These must be transformed and eventually will be transformed. This revelation can appear anytime. A poet never rests. He's always working, even when he dreams. Besides, the life of a writer is a lonely one. You think you are alone, and as the years go by, if the stars are on your side, you may discover that you are at the center of a vast circle of invisible friends whom you will never get to know but who love you. And that is an immense reward.



Now I can forget them. I reach my center,
my algebra and my key,
my mirror.
Soon I will know who I am.

from In Praise of Darkness



from Fragments from an Aprocryphal Gospel:

24. Do not make too much of the cult of truth; there is no man who at the end of a day has not lied, rightly, numerous times.

31. Believe that others are just or will be, and if it proves untrue, it is not your fault.

33. Give what is holy to dogs; cast your pearls before swine; the important thing is to give.

34. Seek for the pleasure of seeking, not of finding...

39. The door, not the man, is the one that chooses.

41. Nothing is built on stone, everything on sand, but our duty is to build as if sand were stone.

48. Happy are the brave, who accept applause or defeat in the same spirit.

50. Happy are the loved and the lovers and those who can do without love.

51. Happy are the happy.