The rules seem to be these: If you have written a successful novel, everyone invites you to write short stories. If you have written some good short stories, everyone wants you to write a novel. But nobody wants anything until you have already proved yourself by being published somewhere else.

...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes.

About a billion years ago, long before the continents had separated to define the ancient oceans, or their own outlines had been determined, a small protuberance jutted out from the northwest corner of what would later become North America.

For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much else what they find.

No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

I kept careful record of the impact of religion on the election in my county. The religious issue permeated every meeting I conducted. It influenced Republicans and Democrats alike. Ministers preached politics publicly and churches distributed the most vicious electioneering materials. Practically no one I met escaped the pressure of this overriding problem and both parties were ultimately forced to make their major calculations with the religious question a foremost consideration.