I could never have been a pacifist. To kill a man was surely to grant him an immeasurable benefit. Oh yes, people always, everywhere, loved their enemies. It was their friends they preserved for pain and vacuity.

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

He had stylized himself--life was easier that way. He had chosen a physical mould just as writer chooses a technical form.

If I stopped loving Him, I would cease to believe in His love. If I loved God, then I would believe in His love for me. It's not enough to need it. We have to love first, and I don't know how. But I need it, how I need it.

Sooner or later... one has to take sides. If one is to remain human.