The body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other two. The body isn't below the mind and the spirit; from the point of view it's between them. if you reside too much in the mind, then you get too abstract and cut off from the world. You long for the spiritual life, but you can't get to it, and you fall into despair. The exercise of the senses frees you from abstraction and opens the way to transcendence.

The essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

I don't know - is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?

How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.

One of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.

My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative view of life.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.