"Because even if you spend your life chasing the immaterial, listening to the most exquisite classical music and getting drunk off of stunning vistas of mountains and waterfalls, all of it isn't worth a dime if you aren't sharing it with someone. Everything amounts to that. True, we must experience most things in solitude to grow, create, destroy and grow again, but our pleasure and joy reaches a threshold in isolation. It is the worst thing to become an island. One must become the whole world."

"What you choose also chooses you."

"Sometimes a writer simply finds new ways of saying what has already been said because, ultimately, truth is unoriginal."

"I have died at the ripe age of twenty.Smile, for the world didn't get a chance to disappoint me.I have died at the mature age of ninety.Smile, for my life was more than satisfying.I have died suddenly-out of the blue.Smile, for I didn't have to fall ill before you.I have died from a long illness.Smile, for I had the chance to say goodbye.I did not want to leave this Earth.But smile, for I am still here among you.Why are you crying?Can you not see I am smiling?"

"She might not have read many books. But when she reads a book, she swallows the very words. If you open the books on her shelves, you will find that the front and back covers encase white pages."

"You'll only know the answers once you love."

"Ignorance might be bliss. But self-forgetfulness is pure ecstasy."

"Nothing belongs to itself anymore. These trees are yours because you once looked at them. These streets are yours because you once traversed them. These coffee shops and bookshops, these cafA©s and bars, their sole owner is you. They gave themselves so willingly, surrendering to your perfume. You sang with the birds and they stopped to listen to you. You smiled at the sheepish stars and they fell into your hair. The sun and moon, the sea and mountain, they have all left from heartbreak. Nothing belongs to itself anymore. You once spoke to Him, and then God became yours. He sits with us in darkness now to plot how to make you ours. K.K."

"Come to me.Why must you ruin this moment?You are burdened with thought.Burdened with the pastand expectations of the future.You are burdened with your self.Cast these aside by laughing at yourself.And love,for what more is there than to love me?Take me nowand let it be heaven for us."

"It's so easy to lose faith and become lost in all of the politics of the world. That's why we need the arts. To sublimate our frustration and anger into something beautiful. Freud called sublimation a virtuous defence mechanism because it is in the arts that we can find our humanity."

"If I can't be your love, then let me be a simple brooch so I may rest a while against your chest. If I can't be your love, then let me be a forgotten coin so I may rest a while against your thigh. If I can't be your love, then let me be an unlit cigarette so I may rest a while in between your lips. If I can't be your love, then let me at least remain in these words so I may rest a while in your thoughts."

"Speak to me: I will spend my lifetime trying to understand you."

"I think falling in love is like discovering the magic of books. You think to yourself, 'how was I living before this?"

"A spark of every fire we seek is already within us."

"They tell us the greatest love story is how water fell in love with fire. Or how satan fell in love with God. But the greatest love story to me is how I didn't notice myself falling, when I fell in love with you."

"Until you see beauty everywhere, in every face, until then, you are blind."

"We cannot hunt for love. We can only surrender and become love's prey."

"You just wait.Soon, lovers all over the worldwill be reciting poems dedicated to you.This is my promise."

"These poems are cups that I pour my love into. Here, Drink!"

"I write our names on the page.What of it, if the paper will be burned?I write our names in the sand.What of it, if the shore will be washed by waves?I write our names on trees that will be cutand benches that will be painted,but what of it?I will keep on writing our namesbecause in this world of ephemera, You and I are the only constant."

"The first music I ever heard was only one hundred and sixty days after I was conceived. Da dum Da dum Da dum Have you ever heard the sound a blessing makes? This is it. The first thing I ever saw was only one hundred and eighty days after I was conceived. It was a bright light soft like clouds warm like candles. Have you ever seen the colour of a blessing? This is it. The first time I ever suffered was in the three thousand and sixty seconds after I was born. I listened for her heartbeat. I searched for her light. I cried for the first time until she was born. Have you ever known a blessing? A twin is it."

"Find me. Seduce me. I want to be in love with you."

"The way you dress is how you greet the sun and other stars."

"I used to be lost in us. Blurred were the lines that separated us. But now, I see our togetherness in our separateness. I see the you in me and the me in you. We are two independent beings who complement one another like photographs that are beautiful on their own but are enhanced when juxtaposed, creating an altogether new photograph."

"My hours are filled with fantasy and indifference. In day and night dreams, I think of my heaven with you. All the time in between, I carelessly spend in hell without you."

"Lisbon, to me, is the Lisbon of Pessoa. Just like London is Woolf's, or rather, Mrs. Dalloway's. Barcelona is GaudA's and Rome is da Vinci's. You see them in every crevice and hear their echoes in every cathedral. I'd like to be the child, or rather, the mother of a city but I neither have a home nor a resting place. My race is humankind. My religion is kindness. My work is love and, well, my city is the walls of your heart."

"I would rather lie facedown on the ground and use my body as a bridge, than stand proud and tall and use my body as a wall."

"Seduce yourself first."

"You need to keep hurting until you realise you never needed to hurt in the first place."

"Last night, I spoke to God.I told Him my plans. He started to cry.I thought I was great to move The Greatest to tears.He said that He was crying only becausemy plans were very differentthan His plans for me."

"An act of violence, no matter how small, can never be justified if it can be avoided."

"These poems are cups that I pour my life into. Here, Drink!"

"Life is short, love is longer."

"I remember our childhood dayswhen life was easyand math problems hard.Mom would help us with our homeworkand dad was not at home but at work.After our chores, we'd go to the old fort museum with clips in our hair and pure joy in our hearts.You, sister, wore the bangles thatyou, brother, got as a prize from the Dentist."Why the bangles? the Dentist asked, surprised, for boys picked the stickers of cars instead."They're for my sisters, you said.Mom would treat us to a bottle of Coke,a few sips each. Then,we'd buy the sweet smelling bread from the same white vanand hand-in-hand,we'd walk to our small flat above the restaurant.I remember our childhood days.Do you remember them too?"

"There is nothing I can do that won't bring me back to you."

"Do not go to my grave. Mary knows, I am not there. Look for me in between pages and on people's lips.Do not go to my old school. Do not go to my old house -I am not in any of those places. Look for me in your hearts and greet me there."

"We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others."

"How is it that there was never youuntil there wasand then all was you?"

"They took my booksbecause my message was love.They took my penbecause my words were love.Then they took my voicebecause my song was love.Soon they'll take myselfso nothing remains.But they don't know that when I'm gonemy love will stay."

"Do you know what you get when you try to escape? When you drive for miles in a deserted city or swim for hours in a shoreless sea? You get yourself."

"Everything I have become,everything I will ever accomplishcannot compare to my mostimpressive feat:I have loved youfiercelyand assiduouslywith the very marrowinside my bones. So that when I die, they can crack them to findyou there. So that when I die, they can open me upand see your name tattooed on the wall of my heart.So that when I die, my epitaph will neither commemoratewho I wasnor what I did, but will read:"She loved.And loved. And loved.And so, I smile now,because that is no small thing."

"I have become intoxicated again.You are such a potent wine, my friend.To escape your withdrawal effects,tomorrow I will drink in excess.Alas, why make me love?I was aware, conscious, and sensible before.I am ill by cause of this illusion.The devil plays tricks on me more and more.I was a harp you immaculately plucked at will.Your score, the nightingale song withinnotes composed to imprison and bear me wings.Oh, if only they could hear how it sings!I am now beyond parched.My strings left untouched.You are no longer an oasis, my friend,but a mirage soon coming to an end."

"Prejudice is an act of violence."

"May we always see life through love-coloured glasses."

"You are not who you think.You're not even the thinker.You are the one conscious of the thought."

"We don't find Godin temples and cathedrals.We don't find Himby standing on a prayer rug or sitting in a pew.God appears when welove someone other than ourselves.And we continue to feel His presence when we do good for others.Because God is not foundin mosques and synagogues.He resides in ourhearts."

"How can you be a lover of loveand not be a lover of God?It is impossible."

"Want to help others? Be yourself. You'll inspire others to muster the courage to be themselves as well."

"One sip of this wine and you will go mad with drunkenness. You will drop your masks and tear your clothes - destroying everything that separates you from the Lover. Once you taste the fruit of this vine, you will be kicked out of the city of yourself. You will forget the world. You will forget yourself. I tell you: you will become a madman who wanders the streets looking for the Lover once you drink this Wine of Love."

"Missing you,I missed a part of meI shared with you that's now gone.Missing you, when really, it was the way you made me feeland the things you made us do.Missing you I shouldn't be.But I can't help missing who I was with you.Missing you,I missed and missed so much of the world and wasn't even missed in return."