As Kierkegaard was the first to suggest, we can never know where our prayers are likely to go nor from whom the answers will come. When we think we are nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.

In my day the library was a wonderful place.... We didn't have visual aids and didn't have various programs...it was a sanctuary.... So I tend to think the library should remain a center of knowledge.

Existentialism is the kind of philosophy that makes for legendary children.

I am not here only so that the blind might see, but to teach those who thought they could see that they are blind

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

When I read it ["Tough Guys Don't Dance"], I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start.