“Hope doesn't mean anything. ... Action's the only thing that counts.”

“To hear the phrase "our only hope" always makes one anxious, because it means that if the only hope doesn't work, there is nothing left.”

“As soon as . . . begins to mean anything to anyone they'll change it. The idea seems to be: use an expression only as long as it doesn't mean anything to anybody.”

“You can be a lousy vampire. You can be a lousy human. What you are doesn't mean anything. It's what you do with what you are that counts.”

“The faith a movement proclaims doesn't count: what counts is the hope it offers. All heresies are the banner of a reality, an exclusion. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. Every battle against heresy wants only this: to keep the leper as he is.”

“I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!”