I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it.

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.

What do you think this is, a f****** tea party? No you can't have a f****** glass of water, you can f****** wait like the rest of us.

It's off the charts - and if you don't believe the scientists, ask the insurance industry, the people we pay to analyze risk in our society.

Steal my stuff off the internet wherever you can and don't apologize. Buy the CDs and DVDs from my site and feel free to burn 'em and share 'em. Then come to the show.

The true subject of poetry is the loss of the beloved.

Love's secret is always to be doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones.

Which one of us, anywhere in the world, doesn't yearn to be believed when the audience is watching?

There aren't many other labels who I can say are that successful, and can give me as much as 4AD gives me, and still have such a great roster.

Sometimes I think no matter how one is born, no matter how one acts, there is something out of gear with one somewhere, and that must be changed. Life at its best is a grand corrective.

I can't confirm any rumors. I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I have no interest in going back to coaching.

Solitude is the natural dwelling place of truth…It is there you will wrestle. It is there you will be tested by fire and by darkness.