I like the dark; it is safer here, where no one can see me. The shadows caress me; friends hugging me.

As a writer, I am just an actor in a play, telling a story that needs to be told.

An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence tends not to arouse our sympathy as much as other forms of privation do.

There was no heaven here. Eternal life meant waking up as a putrid corpse.

It's why I went into teaching in the first place. I like the sound of my own voice. Well that, and I am addicted to the smell of chalk and white-board markers.

From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.

I want to be famous so I can be humble about being famous. What good is my humility when I am stuck in this obscurity?

I think what my father is saying is I want a fair election. I want a fair election.

If two angels were sent down from heaven,--one to conduct an empire, and the other to sweep a street,--they would feel no inclination to change employments.

An artist needs a certain amount of turmoil and confusion.

Systematic change requires a willingness to look on change as an opportunity.

He never pays attention, he always knows the answer, and he can never tell you how he knows. We can't keep thrashing him. He is a bad example to the other pupils. There's no educating a smart boy.