Let's say that when I was a little baby, and all my bones soft and malleable, I was put in a small Episcopal cruciform box and so took my shape. Then, when I broke out of the box, the way a baby chick escapes an egg, is it strange that I had the shape of a cross? Have you ever noticed that chickens are roughly egg-shaped?

...men in fear and hunger destroy their stomachs in the fight to secure certain food, where men hungering for love destroy everything lovable about them.

Don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens - The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

The basic rule [of writing] given us was simple and heartbreaking. A story to be effective had to convey something from the writer to the reader, and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence. Outside of that, there were no rules.

There's something desirable about anything you're used to as opposed to something you're not.

A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down the river.

I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it.