The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

The danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop.

The Saviour of the light liberates soul into the light.

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world. I work every day of the year except at Christmas, when I work a half day.

Though it is true that the church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinner at a distance.

Is he all scarred now? Magic gets rid of most physical scars, but I like to think I scarred him emotionally.

I will not get into a pissing contest with that skunk [Joseph McCarthy].

When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn't suit my temperament at all. I'm a terrible public person.

Understand, it's never been easy to live, when we're trying to escape ourselves.

No one perfectly loves God who does not perfectly love some of his creatures.

Contempt is egotism in ill- humor.