I don't see myself as a philosopher. That's awfully boring.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.

The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

A true lover can never hate or hurt another.

We are all flawed and creatures of our times. Is it fair to judge us by the unknown standards of the future?

Deep inside, the majority of people had the sneaking suspicion that evil was more powerful than good and could be counteracted only by more evil.

Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes; his usefulness takes the place of beauty.

A first-person voice helps to ensure the uniformity and cohesiveness of the narrative; it gathers unto itself incidents and characters in its unstoppable progress toward the story's end.

Madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.

Your business clothes are naturally attracted to staining liquids. This attraction is strongest just before an important meeting.

Set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed.