Lust was a positive high-tension cable, plugged into my core, activating a near-epileptic seizure of conviction that this was the one thing I had to do in life.

If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride

A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.

To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown.

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

Desire outweighs footwork when it comes to crashing the glass

It could be argued that every age gets the comfort savagery writer it deserves.

Anyone can get a job, but do you have a purpose?

If you are in a bad relationship with anyone else, it is because you are in a bad relationship with yourself.

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.

The summer demands and takes away too much. /But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes

You don't lead people by what you say to them

When you are made to pay for such insolence, I shall revel in your ruin.

Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions-it means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short.

Beauty, I believe, comes from God; therefore, there can be no beauty without goodness.

Books will always be there for you.

Well, beauty's in the eye of the beholder... It's all subjective. I'm kind of shy about it, but I'll take it.

Part of the work of writing a novel is to uncover the symmetries or connections that make it whole, which might not reveal itself at first.

Good energy was never meant to be waisted on idiocy.

And some days I wonder why I insist on keeping myself alive.

Don't wait for someone to green light your project, build your own intersection.