...the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

Purity strikes me as the most mysterious of the virtues and the more I think about it the less I know about it.

There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored.

I never understand how writers can succumb to vanity - what you work the hardest on is usually the worst.

Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are

Her name was Maude and she drank whisky all day from a fruit jar under the counter.

The Catholic novelist in the South will see many distorted images of Christ, but he will certainly feel that a distorted image of Christ is better than no image at all. I think he will feel a good deal more kinship with backwoods prophets and shouting fundamentalists than he will with those politer elements for whom the supernatural is an embarrassment and for whom religion has become a department of sociology or culture or personality development.