"Finding beauty in ugliness - that is the province of poets. The most beautiful defeat of my career."
Esteemed English novelist Thomas Hardy and former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
At first glance, they are not obvious soulmates.
But Hardy's thoughts – and Mourinho's tough pragmatism – actually make the origin of these words unclear: a post-match statement or a poet's dedication?
Understanding Mourinho's origins and formation is a key element of BBC Sport's new documentary - How to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho.
Much of that insight can be traced back to a life-changing turning point in the summer of 2008.
A moment of fate in the corridors of Camp Nou that profoundly changed Mourinho.
A moment of rejection and a shift towards realpolitik that even the famous Victorian realist Thomas Hardy would be proud of.
"This is the moment Mourinho becomes the Lord of Darkness," explains Guardian journalist Jonathan Wilson.
A moment to showdown with tiki-taka: "If they play to entertain, I'll make sure no one ever has fun again."
The dismissal in question occurred during the summer of 2008. Barcelona were looking for a new coach after sacking Frank Rijkaard, the 2006 Champions League winner.
The choice came down to Mourinho and his former friend Pep Guardiola.
The two worked closely together during the second half of the 1990s, with Mourinho working as an assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal, and Guardiola as Barcelona captain.
The decision was not necessarily made on merit, given that Mourinho already had Champions League and Premier League trophies, while Guardiola had just completed his first year as coach of Barcelona's B team.
It was a decision that Mourinho took very badly, and which further shaped his methods, especially his desire to put winning above all else.
Especially above aesthetics.
The pinnacle of Mourinho's pragmatism, and perhaps his entire coaching career, came at the Nou Camp, on his way to winning his second Champions League in 2010. Mourinho's Inter arrived at the home ground of Guardiola's Barcelona, the then European champions, with a 3-1 lead from the first leg of the semi-final.
Barcelona fans believed in a turnaround. "The atmosphere before the game was incredibly intense," recalls Zanetti, the Nero Azzurri captain. "When we went out onto the pitch at the start of the match, we saw a huge banner that said 'comeback' in Catalan."
Thiago Mota's 28th-minute sending-off further reinforced that belief. But it also marked the beginning of a 60-minute show of defiance that Mourinho considers a defining moment of his identity and career.
"If I could choose one emotional game for my team in over 20 years of career, it would be that one," Mourinho said of that night at the Nou Camp.
"We knew what awaited us in Barcelona, the atmosphere, the quality of the team, everything."
"Playing with ten men in Barcelona becomes epic. You need heroes. Everyone needs to give their maximum."
"I think I was brilliant in the way I organised the team."
"We defended ourselves with everything we had – our hearts, our souls."
"It's the most beautiful defeat of my career."
"We gave absolutely everything. We lost 1-0. But we went to the final."
After reaching the final, Inter went all the way and won the trophy, and Mourinho once again emerged victorious from a showdown with a former friend, this time against Bayern Munich, who were managed by his former Barcelona boss, Louis van Gaal.
For the Portuguese, it was his second Champions League triumph and the second time he has won against all odds, in which his people management skills have been at the forefront.
The triumph with Porto in 2004 was also a story of an underdog (the only team outside of Europe's top five leagues to win the Champions League since the turn of the century), and also a story in which Mourinho's ability to unite a team came to the fore.
Benny McCarthy, who scored four goals on the way to the final, said of Mourinho: "He was passionate, caring and a tactical genius. I've never seen anything like it before."
"He was the first coach I met who knew almost everything about every player's background, where you come from. How many family members do you have? Are your parents alive?"
"He wanted to know everything about my upbringing, my struggles, my ups and downs. I thought, incredible."
"I didn't even know people in football did that until I met Jose. I played for a few coaches before that. Nobody knew me. And with Jose it was the complete opposite."
"I thought, Wow, what a coach you'd love to play for."
"I would run through a wall for him."
Mourinho agrees: "That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career. Whenever I go to European competitions, I always feel I can win."
"If you build a strong team, a team with a great tactical culture, with the resilience and mental stability to withstand difficult moments, especially in the knockout stages, you always have a chance."
"Champions League winners are always teams. They have players who make the difference at a certain moment. But only teams win. And very complete teams."
"Mourinho created a family"
Mourinho's management style, of course, hasn't always worked. His spells at Manchester United and Tottenham were marked by strained relationships with high-profile players, such as Paul Pogba and Dele Alli.
But, as former Inter captain Javier Zanetti attests, during the 2010 Champions League campaign, Mourinho was a master at leading people and creating the right team culture.
Six years after Porto, the technique he used to shape the team took on a South American flair, but the outcome was the same.
"Mourinho created a family," Zanetti said. "We built that team during the Sundays, over our asadas (Argentine barbecues), which Mourinho also loved.
"It was a moment of unity, a family moment."
"I once said I would throw myself into a fire for Jose Mourinho. Our relationship was not just coach-player or coach-captain, but much more than that. It was a very strong human relationship, and it always will be."
"Those two years were extremely meaningful for both me and her, and they will forever remain in our hearts. He taught us a lot, and made us believe that we could make history, and we did."
Zanetti's emotional statement "he will remain in our hearts" is not something you would naturally associate with Mourinho's ruthless pragmatism.
After both of his Champions League triumphs, the Portuguese coach was in a new job within weeks, first moving to Chelsea and then to Real Madrid in 2010.
Again, it was the realpolitik that runs through Mourinho's career and would be in line with Hardy's realism. Finish the job and then move on to new horizons, when you are at the peak of your abilities, both coaching and financial.
However, in the documentary "How to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho", archival behind-the-scenes footage from the Bernabeu, immediately after the 2010 Champions League final, shows a different side of Mourinho.
The video shows the Portuguese coach leaving the stadium, walking past the team bus he left with, almost without a word. He leaves immediately, as a move to Real Madrid is imminent.
However, when he sees one of his key collaborators, Marco Materazzi, he is unable to make such a cold exit. Mourinho gets out of the car and the two share a tender, tearful embrace, before Mourinho gets back into the vehicle and finally turns his back on Inter.
His next public appearance was when he was officially presented as Real Madrid coach nine days later.
At first glance, the speed of this turnaround suggests that Inter was merely a means to an end, not the pivotal moment.
Tears and Mourinho's story 15 years later tell a different, more sentimental story.
"I ran away, I went to the bus to say goodbye, and I didn't even give him a hand," Mourinho says.
"I wanted to escape. I think, if I had gotten on the bus, if I had gone back to Milan with them, if I had walked into a full San Siro, if I had walked into the Duomo (Milan Cathedral) full of people, I don't think I would have gone to Real Madrid."
"I think emotion would stop me from leaving."
"But I wanted to go. I thought it was the right time. I had to get away."
"Marko was there. If it had been Dejan Stanković, or Diego Milito, or Julio Cesar instead of Marko, it would have been the same story."
In many ways, the duality of that moment defines Mourinho, and the question of how he won his two Champions League trophies.
Creating an extremely loyal bond with his players off the field, which ensured that the team taking the field was prepared to run through walls as well as stand with their backs to the wall.
Fifteen years later, Mourinho may have become a little calmer. His management skills and star status may have waned a bit.
But the ego, confidence and pride in his Champions League triumphs, which shaped his career, remained as strong as ever.
As Mourinho clearly points out, neither his triumph with Porto nor with Inter have been repeated.
"Why am I here now, talking to you?" he says.
"It's not because I'm at Fenerbahce now, or because I won the Premier League with Chelsea."
"It's because I'm a two-time Champions League winner. That's the reason."
"I think there are other teams and clubs where when you do it, other guys (coaches) then do it too."
"You do it this season. I do it next. Three years later, someone else comes along and people will even be confused about which season you won it in."
"You go to Real Madrid, to Barcelona, to Manchester United, to these big teams and maybe people don't have the same feeling."
"But you go to Porto, you go to Milan and everyone knows."
"Champions League winner 2004, Champions League winner 2010."
"Who was the coach? Mourinho."
Bonus video:
