I never understand how writers can succumb to vanity - what you work the hardest on is usually the worst.

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.

Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.

For me, all the materials and objects I employ come from a specific space that's very personal.

Courage is always rewarded.

Happy people do not demand a lot from the world because their happiness proceeds from a place deeper than the world can touch.

I seem to enjoy making my life miserable by taking on too many projects and always wishing I could put more time into all of them.

A few years later, my Uncle David took me to the Earle Theatre to hear Duke Ellington.

Violence is a part of the world and life, and you shouldnt have to take it out of stories.

I work every day. I work all day. I've never had a holiday. It's all I really want to do. It's what I'm here for. . . . More and more, I'm just so grateful I was born an artist.

If you want to be somewhere, you should go to that place and check it out.

Hmmm, completely a-religious - atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both.