Words were like objects, making the idea more solid -- less a poisonous gas and more a ... cube of crystallized thought.

If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include the truth of contact or be forever hollow.

I now understand the need for faith - pure, blind, fly-in-the-face-of-reason faith - as a small life preserver in the wild and endless sea of a universe ruled by unfeeling laws and totally indifferent to the small, reasoning beings that inhabit it.

I loved almost everything about being a teacher, but I was an unusual teacher

I despair at the rise of modern violence. I truly give in to despair at times, that deep, futureless pit of despair.... I watch the American slaughterhouse, the casual attacks on popes, presidents, and uncounted others, and I wonder if there are many more out there with the Ability or if butchery has simply become the modern way of life.

Speaking as a novelist myself, I know that members of our profession live in our imaginations as much or more as we inhabit what people call 'the real world.

Nothing helps an artist's career more than a little death and obscurity.