Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim.

The constants that I look for are a love of light and a determination to trace some moral chain of being.

The irony of Christmas is always upon the poor in heart; the mystery of the solstice is always upon the rest of us.

Avoid kneeling in unheated stone churches. Ecclesiastical dampness causes prematurely grey hair.

Then it is dark; it is a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.