It is a sign of maturity... to find explanations in charity.

If there is no possibility for change in a character, we have no interest in him.

... Simone Weil is a mystery that should keep us all humble, and I need it more than most. Also she's the example of the religious consciousness without a religion which maybe sooner or later I will be able to write about.

... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him.

Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part.

I write any sort of rubbish which will cover the main outlines of the story, then I can begin to see it.

I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.