That's what happens if you don't address the darkness in you. You become repressed and depressed and suicidal.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.

Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

The whole point of courage, to overcome your fear. That's the interesting thing, when courage bleeds through the fear.

I always liked to take the plunge, you know, I'd jump in at the deep end and hope that I'd find land somehow, or hope I'd float or survive. That's more or less the way I've gone through my life.

You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?

When I have a problem I pray about it and what comes to mind and stays there I assume to be my answer. And this has been right so often that I know it is God's answer.

I just think, as writers, especially with a book that takes years to write, you sort of wake up every morning hoping and praying that you can make it work for the day.

I normally can't stand vice-free people. They conflate a narcissistic instinct for self-preservation with moral superiority. Plus, they suck the life right out of a party.

Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

I'm not vanishing into thin air.

This is a great mind at work examining itself. This is where literature comes from.

I shall never know God if I do not wrestle with and against evil, even at the cost of life itself.

All situations teach you, and often it's the tough ones that teach you best.

Details are all that matters; God dwells in these and you never get to see Him if you don't struggle to get them right.

Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you'll be here a long time.