You are saying, are you not, I said to Manuelito, that stories have more room in them than ideas? [...] He laughed. That is correct, Señor. It is as if ideas are made of blocks. Rigid and hard. And stories are made of a gauze that is elastic. You can almost see through it, so what is beyond is tantalizing. You can't quite make it out; and because the imagination is always moving forward, you yourself are constantly stretching. Stories are the way spirit is exercised.

You know a little drink now and then never hurt nobody, but when you can't git started without asking the bottle, you in trouble.

To grow, to become spiritually alive, and vibrant, you really have to struggle. Without struggle, you do not move at all...I would appreciate it if readers who come to my work would try very, very, very hard not to think narrowly as we are taught to think in America.

I am not convinced that men and women were ever meant to share the same house, though some people can do it beautifully.

The protection of evil must be the most self-destructive job.

Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.

We writers - we're the snowflakes of the literary world. We each have our own shape.