Like and equal are not the same thing at all. -- Meg Murray

The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise.

When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity.

That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've been all along.

All real art is, in its true sense, religious; it is a religious impulse; there is no such thing as a non-religious subject. But much bad or downright sacrilegious art depicts so-called religious subjects.

I know writers who write only when inspiration comes. How would Isaac Stern play if he played the violin only when he felt like it? He would be lousy.

To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.