At my back I hear the word-"homosexual"-and it seems to split my world in two.... It is ignorance, our ignorance of one another, that creates this terrifying erotic chaos. Information, a crumb of information, seems to light the world.

The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man's complexity and the strength and decency of his longings.

Children drown, beautiful women are mangled in automobile accidents, cruise ships founder, and men die lingering deaths in mines and submarines, but you will find none of this in my accounts.

When the beginnings of self destruction enter the heart, it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.

I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be.

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

Admite the world. Relish the love of a gentle woman. Trust in the lord.