If we forget our past, we won't remember our future and it will be as well because we won't have one.

I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.

When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God's business.

The meaning of the story is the story.

The life you save may very well be your own.

Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.

All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.