It's not a man's working hours that is important, it is how he spends his leisure time.

I was read to as a small child, I read on my own as soon as I could, and I recall being more or less overwhelmed again and again - if not by what the books actually said, by what they suggested, what they helped me to imagine.

Two questions I can't really answer about fiction are 1) where it comes from, and 2) why we need it. But that we do create it and also crave it is beyond dispute.

When something ought to be true then it proves to be a very powerful truth.

I do assume that a character or a place is inexhaustible and will always reward further attention.

There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world, and the other is when we feel the world's mortal insufficiency to us.

I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.