“Literature suffers because writers give their books to colleagues who will then write glowing reviews or saccharine introductions.”

“We write from life and call it literature, and literature lives because we are in it.”

“Just because you have so much to give does not mean that they'll all be accepted. There's more to giving than just giving.”

“The importance not just of history, but of roots - that a writer must have then to nurture, to remember if he is to endure.”

“It is easy to forgive a person his faults when he is dead because in death, he atones for his sins somewhat before the eyes of people who are still living and who have yet to add more on the parchment where their sins are listed.”

“Life is holy and it is for all of us. God's design, I cannot understand myself and I never will, but I do know that what we are experiencing now will pass and in the end we will all be brothers, not just blood brothers, as we are, but brothers in spirit. Neither you nor I can change the world or human nature and we can only aim at changing attitudes - and perhaps teach those who have so much to give a portion of their blessings to those who have less.”

“Never, never hide your pain, scream as if you are dying so you will not be harmed more. Never, never hide your poverty, too. The worst enemies of the poor are the poor themselves. And never, never appear that you are virtuous and without sin. It it is the virtuous who have many enemies because for they shame the many without virtue.”