“You can make some inferences about a man's character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.”

“You can survive alone, or you can *live* together. I know which option William would chose—has chosen,” he said, shaking me as if he wished he could shake some sense into me. “You have to make your choice.”

“We cannot infer from prosperity that God is pleased with us, nor can we infer from adversity that he is displeased with us.”

“The whole point about vision is that it's very individual, it's very personal, and it has to be confessional. It has to be something which hurts - the pulling out of it and putting it on the page hurts. Art can be about the individual writer's response to his or her condition, and if that response comes out of a predigested belief about what the audience wants to hear about the writer's condition, then it has no truth, it has no validity. You either write with your own blood or nobody's. Otherwise it's just ink.”

“You can never know enough about your characters”

“You know how we can be about things which sparkle and shine. We imagine they will put back something of what has been lost.”