There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.

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.

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Once a good model gets inside you, it can inform and guide you throughout a lifetime.

We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.

I'll rise but I refuse to shine.

Editing was hard for me. It was hard to be in a room by yourself and not have that collaborative spirit. Comedies are really tight and timing is everything.

The key to managing fear and life's tasks is to take the time daily to get organized.

I crawled in the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw the devil. It was me.

Then I picked my book back up again and stroked her hair and read to the soundtrack of her breaths.

Sometimes we carry mistakes we haven't even made yet.