The novel is a game or joke shared between author and reader.

At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of the year's planting

When I walk with a camera, I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment's light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer.

Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I believed them.

Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.

One of the few things I know about writing is this: Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book, give it, give it all, give it now.

You can serve or you can sing, and wreck your heart in prayer, working the world's hard work.