One of the awful things about writing when you are a Christian is that for you the ultimate reality is the Incarnation, the present reality is the Incarnation, and nobody believes in the Incarnation; that is, nobody in your audience. My audience are the people who think God is dead. At least these are the people I am conscious of writing for.

She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.

I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.

... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.

Writing is a good example of self-abandonment. I never completely forget myself except when I am writing and I am never more completely myself than when I am writing.

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him.