Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.
A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.
Had I faced all the facts It seemed like I had but actually you never know just by remembering how many there were to have faced.
Well, being a perfectionist seems okay from the outside, but a perfectionist never enjoys anything, no matter how well it goes, because nothing is ever perfect.
War is inevitable when the world is fallen. If you stop one, another will start. Redemption is the only path away from war.
The novel is, above all, an intense experience of prolonged intimacy with another consciousness.
In this flirtation he was conducting, he had had to rely entirely on his personality, never a good idea.
Twenty-five, he was. Twenty-five tomorrow. Some years the snow had melted for his birthday, but not this year, and so it had been a long winter full of cows.
Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.
Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.