"There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive."

"Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking."

"Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection the past then lives in your words and you are free."

"A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself."

"Religion is inwardly focused and driven only to sustain itself."

"Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned."

"I have so many things to work on, and so many ways that I fail. But that's what grace is all about. and I constantly wake up every morning trying to get better, trying to improve, trying to walk closer to God."

"I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world."