The less self-conscious you are about what you are about, the better in a way, that is to say technically. You have to get it in your blood, not in the head.

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.

Once the blinders are off, it's rather hard to go back to seeing things the way you used to.

Even the longest con was never more than an assortment of moments that were in themselves very very short.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

My career was obviously cut shorter than I wanted it to be.

Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously - and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply.

The strong must protect the sweet.

A sannyasin has to relax to that total state of let-go when everything happens and nothing is done.

Existence in itself, taken at its least miraculous, is a miracle.

The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our minds.

Nowadays, when you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it