[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 . . .

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.

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 use the grotesque the way I do because people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.

Leaders look out for people who can criticize them constructively and rebuke them reasonably.

If we do not know how to meaningfully talk about racism, our actions will move in misleading directions.

One thing I detest most about the financial press is the lack of accountability. All sorts of nonsense is said without penalty.

You cannot set art off in a corner and hope for it to have vitality, reality, and substance.

Believe it or not, I don't own a TV. Crazy huh?

There is no such thing in the Lord's eyes as something called same-gender marriage.

The unexpected always happens.

Accumulating love brings luck, accumulating hatred brings calamity.

Everyone knows I'm no treehugger

There are professions more harmful than industrial design but only a few of them