... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him.

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.

Love requires fellowship and relationship with people

There is no greater peace than work and no greater happiness than progress.

Unsatisfied parents produce professionally successful but personally discontent children.

I live my life free of compromise, and step into the shadows without complaint or regret.

Don't take anything for granted. If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. Have a little more confidence.

I'm an easy person to get along with. Even when I struggle, I have the same attitude.

Well, a lot of people don't want to be quoted. But keep in mind that Bob Woodward did all of his Watergate reporting with anonymous sources, and we know how that turned out.

I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

I'm always nice when I do drugs. But, you know, I'm nicer on the drug called "writing."

There is no prayer or good work so great, so pleasing to God, so useful to us as the Mass.