I'm a social writer in the sense that I want to record, but not in the sense of trying to change people's minds.

I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them...to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.

If I ever teach writing again, I’d say the first lesson is to listen.

When you're a writer, you have to write these stories, even if you don't get paid

I come out of a strong oral tradition in the South.

You have to watch out with my plays. They're like yeast. You think they're one thing, then all of a sudden subtext gets to working.

Writing is the thing that props me up.

Notwithstanding the sight of all our miseries, which press upon us and take us by the throat, we have an instinct which we cannot repress, and which lifts us up.

In Italy, for the same price as a typical British hamburger meal including sweet, a builder's labourer could eat like a king - rather better in fact, because pasta dishes gain from being kept simple.

Even the small amount of infamy I have makes me uncomfortable - on a personal level and on a professional level.

The Kitsch consumer wants to be enchanted.

The house should derive dignity from the master, not the master from the house.

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.

Our life here on Earth has as its purpose precisely to prepare for our eternal happiness. This world is a large womb. It is a 'test' as all opportunities are tests.

The applause and the favour of our fellow-men Fan even a spark of genius to a flame.

My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream, and wisdom comes to us in dreams.

Being a man with a conscience I simply felt that I had to do something - anything! - about the world we live in.