The loony legacy of money was that the arithmetic by which things were measured had become more valuable than the things themselves.

Western civilization was declining too fast for comfort, but too slowly to be very exciting.

Ellen Cherry was from the south and had good manners. She didn´t have any panties on, but she had good manners.

Most really good fiction is compelled into being. It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not be certain of exactly what's going to transpire on page 2. If you know the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you begin it. Give it some room to breathe, to change direction, to surprise you. Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a voyage, an adventure.

Every individual has to assume responsibility for his or her own actions, even the poor and the young. A social system that decrees otherwise is inviting intellectual atrophy and spiritual stagnation.

And what would our ideas of God, of religion, be like if they had come to us through the minds of women? Ever think of that?

Each time we exhale, the world ends; when we inhale, there can be, if we allow it, rebirth and spiritual renewal. It all transpires inside of us. In our consciousness, in our hearts. All the time.