"[Pasolini's] moral passion, analytical intelligence, and the stark beauty of his work make him one of the giants of Italian literature."–Village Voice
"Patriotic poetry usually comes out of a right-wing tradition and is nationalistic, but Pasolini's great originality was to be a citizen-poet of the left . . . He wept over the ruins of Italy but without a hint of rhetoric."–Alberto Moravia
"In an era when Italy produced a bumper crop of difficult, passionate artists, he may have been the . . . most prodigiously talented."–A. O. Scott
