I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

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 legal system is blatantly rigged against the common people.

...ism's are not good. A person should not believe in an ism. He should believe in himself.

...I've never really had a party before.""Why did you have one now?" I say, just to keep him talking.He gives a half laugh. "I thought if I had a party, you would come.

The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.

Ideas have consequences and bad ideas can have lethal consequences.

I have tried to do what is true and not ideal.

When in doubt, throw it out.

It was headquartered in Michigan City, a long way off. I never saw Ku Klux Klan march.

In life, in true life, there can be nothing better than what is. Wanting something different than what is, is blasphemy.

I believe that we live in a "return to sender universe" - what you send out is exactly what you will get back.