Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12 I am there ready for it.

If you don't hunt it down and kill it, it will hunt you down and kill you.

I am very handy with my advice and then when anybody appears to be following it, I get frantic.

I distrust pious phrases, especially when they issue from my mouth. I try militantly never to be affected by the pious language of the faithful but it is always coming out when you least expect it. In contrast to the pious language of the faithful, the liturgy is beautifully flat.

When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one.

We are now living in an age which doubts both fact and value. It is the life of this age that we wish to see and judge.

Once the process [of conversion] is begun and continues...you are continually turning inward toward God and away from your own egocentricity...you have to see this selfish side of yourself in order to turn away from it. I measure God by everything I am not. I begin with that.