Mahmoud Darwish

"You won't find the same person twice, not even in the same person."

"Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by."

"I see poetry as spiritual medicine."

"I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light."

"Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile."

"Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence it breaks walls down."

"History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor."

"“You won't find the same person twice, not even in the same person.”"

"In Damascus:poems become diaphanous They’re neither sensualnor intellectualthey are what echo saysto echo . . ."

"Put it on record--I am an Arab And the number of my card is fifty thousand I have eight children And the ninth is due after summer. What's there to be angry about?Put it on record.--I am an Arab Working with comrades of toil in a quarry. I have eight childern For them I wrest the loaf of bread,The clothes and exercise books From the rocks And beg for no alms at your doors,--Lower not myself at your doorstep.--What's there to be angry about?Put it on record.--I am an Arab. I am a name without a tide,Patient in a country where everything Lives in a whirlpool of anger.--My roots--Took hold before the birth of time--Before the burgeoning of the ages,--Before cypess and olive trees,--Before the proliferation of weeds. My father is from the family of the plough--Not from highborn nobles. And my grandfather was a peasant--Without line or genealogy. My house is a watchman's hut--Made of sticks and reeds. Does my status satisfy you?--I am a name without a surname. Put it on Record.--I am an Arab. Color of hair: jet black. Color of eyes: brown. My distinguishing features:--On my head the 'iqal cords over a keffiyeh--Scratching him who touches it. My address:--I'm from a village, remote, forgotten,--Its streets without name--And all its men in the fields and quarry.--What's there to be angry about?Put it on record.--I am an Arab. You stole my forefathers' vineyards--And land I used to till,--I and all my childern,--And you left us and all my grandchildren--Nothing but these rocks.--Will your government be taking them too--As is being said?So!--Put it on record at the top of page one:--I don't hate people,--I trespass on no one's property. And yet, if I were to become starved--I shall eat the flesh of my usurper.--Beware, beware of my starvation.--And of my anger!"