...you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.

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.

Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute.

Success means being heard and don't stand there and tell me that you are indifferent to being heard. You may write for the joy of it, but the act of writing is not complete in itself. It has to end in its audience.

Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part.

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