Mahmoud Darwish Quotes - BrainyQuote

Palestinian - Poet March 13, 1941 - August 9, 2008

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

Mahmoud Darwish

Smile Me People Pain

Some people ask, 'How do you attract the young and so many different people when your poetry is complicated and different?' I say, 'My accomplishment is that my readers trust me and accept my suggestions for change.'

Mahmoud Darwish

Change Me Trust You

A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.

Mahmoud Darwish

Die Place Born Person

The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation.

Mahmoud Darwish

Today Tomorrow World Better

Exile is more than a geographical concept. You can be an exile in your homeland, in your own house, in a room.

Mahmoud Darwish

You House Your Own

The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.

Mahmoud Darwish

Reality Stronger Palestine Than

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

Mahmoud Darwish

Beauty Beautiful Peace You

I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory.

Mahmoud Darwish

Myself Self Memory Decide

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.

Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry Grass Like Human

For the Arabs in Israel there is always a tension between nationality and identity.

Mahmoud Darwish

Identity Tension Always Israel

When I passed the age of 50, I learned how to control my emotions.

Mahmoud Darwish

Age Control Emotions How

Without hope we are lost.

Mahmoud Darwish

Hope Lost Without

History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.

Mahmoud Darwish

History Victim Laughs Both

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.

Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry How Poet Says

I've built my homeland, I've even founded my state - in my language.

Mahmoud Darwish

Language Homeland Even State

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

Mahmoud Darwish

Light Me Power Poetry

I see poetry as spiritual medicine.

Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry Spiritual Medicine See

Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism.

Mahmoud Darwish

Terrorism Nothing Justifies

When a writer declares that his first book is his best, that is bad. I progress successively from book to book.

Mahmoud Darwish

Best Progress Book Bad

Sometimes I feel as if I am read before I write. When I write a poem about my mother, Palestinians think my mother is a symbol for Palestine. But I write as a poet, and my mother is my mother. She's not a symbol.

Mahmoud Darwish

Mother I Am Feel Sometimes

Palestinian people are in love with life.

Mahmoud Darwish

Life Love People Palestinian

I never wanted children; maybe I'm afraid of responsibility.

Mahmoud Darwish

Children Responsibility Never Afraid

I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews.

Mahmoud Darwish

I Am Hate Reason Israel

To be under occupation, to be under siege, is not a good inspiration for poetry.

Mahmoud Darwish

Good Poetry Inspiration Occupation

The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms - all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace.

Mahmoud Darwish

Peace Strong Accept Ready

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