The chief requirement of the good life, is to live without any image of oneself.

... a less than perfect meddling in the spiritual world can breed monsters for other people.

They are universal places, like churches, hallowed meeting places of all mankind.

He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life and never managed to get out.

People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don't admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It's the novelist privilege to see how odd everyone is.

The notion that one can liberate another soul from captivity is an illusion of the very young.

It is difficult in life to be good, and difficult in art to portray goodness. Perhaps we don't know much about goodness.