I have a point of view. You have a point of view. God has view.
What can we give a child when there is nothing left?
The degree of talent, the size of the gift, is immaterial. All artists must listen, but not all hear great symphonies, see wide canvasses, conceive complex, character-filled novels. No matter, the creative act is the same, and it is an act of faith.
I wrote because I wanted to know what everything was about.
To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.
There’s nothing more physically exhausting than a sense of failure.
Anything that’s natural can’t be sinful-it may be inconvenient, but it’s not sinful.
Sometimes when we have to speak suddenly we come closer to the truth than when we have time to think.
Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others.
I share Einstein’s affirmation that anyone who is not lost in rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe “is as good as a burnt out candle.”
The naked intellect is an extraordinarily inaccurate instrument.
We tend to think things are new because we’ve just discovered them.
To grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable.
Are anybody’s parents typical?
If it’s bad art, it’s bad religion, no matter how pious the subject.
I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.
No matter how true I believe what I am writing to be, if the reader cannot also participate in that truth, then I have failed.
Sometimes idiosyncrasies which used to be irritating become endearing, part of the complexity of a partner who has become woven deep into our own selves.
When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity.
With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.