"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it.

The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." I am a mariner of Odysseus with heart of fire but with mind ruthless and clear. Toda Raba (1934) We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody e ffort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Bel ieving in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed aga inst every disappointment. Toda Raba (1934) God, what is all this talk put out by the popes? Paradise is here, my good man. God, give me no other paradise! Freedom and Death (1956) We, who are dying, are doing better, than they, who will live. For Crete doesn't need householders, she needs madmen like us. These madmen make Crete immortal. Freedom and Death (1956) All my life I struggled to stretch my mind to the breaking point, until it began to creak, in order to create a great thought which might be able to give a new meaning to life, a new meaning to death, and to console mankind. "Odyssey of Faith" in TIME magazine (6 June 1960) I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God." and the almond tree blossomed. The Fratricides (1964) Every perfect traveller always creates the country where he travels. As quoted in Reporter in Red China (1966) by Charles Taylor The major and almost only theme of all my work is the struggle of man with "God" : the unyielding, inextinguishable struggle of the naked worm called "man" again st the terrifying power and darkness of the forces within him and around him. As quoted in Nikos Kazantzakis (1968) by Helen Kazantzakis, p. 507 Having seen that I was not capable of using all my resources in political action , I returned to my literary activity. There lay the the battlefield suited to my temperament. I wanted to make my novels the extension of my own father's strugg le for liberty. But gradually, as I kept deepening my responsibility as a writer , the human problem came to overshadow political and social questions. All the p olitical, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot h ave any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks. As quoted in Nikos Kazantzakis (1968) by Helen Kazantzakis, p. 529 You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am. In response to attempts by leaders of the Greek Orthodox church to anath ematize him, as quoted in God's Struggler : Religion in the Writings of Nikos Ka zantzakis (1996) by Darren J. N. Middleton and Peter Bien, p. 12 A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be fre e. As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for S piritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 412