Octavio Paz

The idea of modernity is beginning to lose its vitality. It is losing it because modernity is no longer a critical attitude but an accepted, codified convention.

The sound of water is worth more than all the poets' words.

Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall - that of our consciousness - between the world and ourselves.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

The thing about great poetry is we have no defenses against it.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Latin America moved decisively away from military rule and toward civilian democracy.