"What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people's dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours."

"I still have a photo on my wall of the greatest idol I will ever have in my life, and it's myself at eight. Because that's when the forces of imagination have the same value as the real world, when they're an instrument of survival: when my mother disappeared, and I imagined a mother. That was me at my best."

"I live with one foot in the sand and one in the snow. There's European egocentricity, and the African opposite. I normally say that my African experience has made me a better European."

"Many people say I smile more in Africa than in Sweden."

"The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity."

"I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect."

"I'm a black American, I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity."

"Being a monarchist - saying that one small group is born more worthy of respect than another - is just as warped and strange as being a racist."