How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.

He never became a consistent communist but visited the Soviet Union and stayed with the Left Opposition politician and writer Victor Serge. He gained renewed fame with the 1988 Martin Scorsese adaptation of his book The Last Temptation of Christ. " Upon his return to Greece he began translating works of philosophy.

He became known globally after the 1964 release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek based on the novel. Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης; February 18 1883 – October 26 1957) was a Greek writer and philosopher celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek considered his magnum opus.