Politics is something similar to the lower physiological functions, with the unpleasant difference that political functions are unavoidably carried out in public.

The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.

My reading list grows exponentially. Every time I read a book, it'll mention three other books I feel I have to read. It's like a particularly relentless series of pop-up ads.

He has the body of a professional athlete, chiseled to perfection in all the right places.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

One thing is a fairly simple and straightforward thing. I don't long to direct. I really want to get some good parts.

People are best on records and books because you can turn them off or put them back on the shelf.

Distance is no barrier to the love of God.

I think that setting a novel in a small town taps into a sense of nostalgia among readers. People tend to believe life is different in small towns, and frankly, it is different.

Only God is able to humble us without humiliating us and to exalt us without flattering us.

The Eastern monarch who proclaimed a reward to him who should discover a new pleasure, would have deserved well of mankind had he stipulated that it should be blameless.

Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.