At this moment, by an undeserved stroke of fortune, I am the direct voice of the poets of my race and the indirect voice for the noble Spanish and Portuguese tongues. ↗
You come before me this morning with clean hands and clean collars. I want you to have clean tongues, clean manners, clean morals and clean characters. ↗
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. ↗
When I need a word and do not find it in French, I select it from other tongues, and the reader has either to understand or translate me. Such is my fate. ↗