Music is a bird's answer to the noise and heaviness of words. It puts the mind in a state of exhilarated speechlessness.

Misery loves company, and madness calls it forth.

We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?

First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.

Dawn came and matters were worse for it. Because now, emerging from the darkness, I could see, what before I had only felt, the great curtains of rain crashing down on me from towering heights and the waves that threw a path over me and trod me underfoot one after another.

I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.

I meet a number of people as a writer of fiction who say "Oh, I don't read much fiction," as if the history of the United States, just as an example, isn't an exercise in storytelling and myth-making.