The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.

A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen.

Statuettes of drunken sailors, velvet pictures of island maidens, plastic seashell lamps made in Taiwan. What contempt the people who think up souvenirs have for other people.

Not having to own a car has made me realize what a waste of time the automobile is.

Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.

Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavor, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow.

...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?

The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.

In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.

Glenda Adams has written a wicked and witty novel.

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.

Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.

You always get exaggerated notions of things you don't know anything about.

You become what you think about most of the time.

I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.

I was use to wearing things that accentuated and flattered my bust and waist (just shakin' what my mama gave me) and definitely not my thighs.

It's fun to play a character when you can't concern yourself with how sympathetic they are.

What good is religion if it collapses under calamity?

He said, 'Gosh, Dad, that mean's we're not going to any more bowl games.'

If a supernatural power tries to make you a saint or an emperor, refuse it, because the greatest beauty of life hides in having no position whatsoever! Positionless is the best position!

We contacted the FBI months ago, when the DNC issue came about. They've reviewed all of our systems. We have hacking detection systems in place.