The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

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.

You are not permitted to kill a woman who has wronged you, but nothing forbids you to reflect that she is growing older every minute.

Lie until even you believe it - that's the real secret of lying

To be a great man think like them and behave like them but do not repeat their mistakes

We have to design a health delivery system by actually talking to people and asking, 'What would make this service better for you?' As soon as you start asking, you get a flood of answers.

It's emotional for every champion who decides to step down, it's a tough decision. It's probably easier for some, like me. But I'm just going to try to take it in stride. It's part of life.

I feel sick and disempowered, betrayed, angry and crushed by the corruption of all that I know is right.

If we are going to amend the constitution, shouldn't it be to keep the omos-hay from arrying-may?

We do not love each other without changing each other.

Height is probably 95 per cent genetic.

It doesn’t matter what it is, it becomes better with love.