A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.

You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.

You shall know the truth, and it will make you odd.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul.

Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

...you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.

[To] know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility . . .

It is the business of the artist to uncover the strangeness of truth

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

The fundamental characteristic that enables hidden leadership to bloom is demonstrating integrity.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

Blacheville smiles with the self-satisfied smugness of a man whose vanity is tickled

In my case, a papadaddy is a father. My paternal grandfather was called Papa by my father who was called Daddy by me.

I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church.

I found that if I got up on the stage to entertain the troops I could make them shut up and look.

A perfect day for me would just be a day that goes the way I plan.

If you're watching a comedian on television and he's making a political point, I would say he's gotten too serious.

She'd never have allowed herself to be held by anything as mundane as a few bars and a reinforced door

When Daddy goes to work, there's a mouth to feed, a point to life and a reason to do things