It is hard to make your adversaries real people unless you recognize yourself in them - in which case, if you don't watch out, they cease to be adversaries.

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.

Catcher in the Rye had a profound impact on me-the idea that we all have lots of dreams that are slowly being chipped away as we grow up.

Slavery...dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.

The rich man despises those who flatter him too much, and hates those who do not flatter him at all.

To dance, put your hand on your heart and listen to the sound of your soul.

Life consists of nothing more than the happiness we can get out of it.

In America, you watch TV and think that's totally unreal, then you step outside and it's just the same.

I wasn’t raised, I was built.

I was called a terrorist yesterday... Today I am admired by the very people who said I was one.

You have to have the right atmosphere, really be in the right mood to really fully enjoy a Cohiba.

People are strange. We're all morticians. Hey, what's on TV?