“Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action.”

“In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain.”

“An unhealthy soul requires a healthy body.”

“A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.”

“Writing novels is much the same. You gather up bones and make your gate, but no matter how wonderful the gate might be, that alone doesn't make it a living breathing novel. A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.”

“A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.”

“In order to pin down reality as realilty, we need another reality to relativize the first. Yet that other reality requires a third reality to serve as its grounding. An endless chain is created within our consciousness, and it is the maintenance of this chain which produces the sensation that we are actually here, that we ourselves exist.”