If you're a Catholic you believe what the Church teaches and the climate makes no difference.

The novelist is required to open his eyes on the world around him and look. If what he sees is not highly edifying, he is still required to look. Then he is required to reproduce, with words, what he sees.

Faith has to take in all the other possibilities it can.

I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

Satisfy your demand for reason but always remember that charity is beyond reason, and God can be known through charity.

Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen.

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.