To the extent that I come from a deeply religious tradition and have been contending with those beginnings all of my life - that constitutes the subject of much of my early fiction.

Each work seems to give me the most trouble at the time I'm working on it.

Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown

Each generation thinks it fights new battles. But the battles are the same. Only the people are different.

It is impossible to fuse totally with a culture for which you feel a measure of antagonism.

I do not have many things that are meaningful to me. Except my doubts and my fears. And my art.

He taught them that the purpose of a man is to make his life holy--every aspect of his life: eating, drinking praying, sleeping. God is everywhere, he told them, and if it seems at times that He is hidden from us, it is only because we have not yet learned to seek Him correctly.