When things are taking their ordinary course, it is hard to remember what matters.

In eternity this world will be like Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.

I did go through graduate school and I like to do research, to create something that has a certain objective solidity. The same thing influences my fiction to some degree, because, you know, my fiction is often based on history that I've read.

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

It is hardship that makes clear who the "fighters" are.

Fiction that does not acknowledge this at least tacitly is not true.

It seems to me some people just go around lookin' to get their faith unsettled. That has been the fashion for the last hundred years or so.