[1] At university, he was a member of the União Nacional dos Estudantes (National Student Union), and he befriended musicians Gilberto Gil (who was studying business) and Caetano Veloso (who was studying philosophy).
[1] The 1964 military coup d'état forced him to leave Salvador, and he relocated to São Paulo.
[1] In São Paulo he worked on poems for his first book, Inquisitórial.
[1] Eventually he returned to Salvador, this time to study medicine.
[1] In 2000, he composed the opera Rei Brasil 500 Anos with Fernando Cerqueira and Paul Gold, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Brazil's discovery.