“I tried to write a coming of age novel, but I wasn't deep enough to get past the third chapter.”

“For all my longer works (i.e. the novels) I write chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on.”

“Christian literature comes from Christian novelists and dramatists - not from the bench of bishops getting together and trying to write plays and novels in their spare time.”

“Writing is like everything else: the more you do it the better you get. Don't try to perfect as you go along, just get to the end of the damn thing. Accept imperfections. Get it finished and then you can go back. If you try to polish every sentence there's a chance you'll never get past the first chapter.”

“I used to feel for years and years and years that I was very remiss not to have written a novel and I would question people who wrote novels and try to find out how they did it and how they had got past page 30. Then, with the approach of old age, I began to just think: “Well, lucky I can do anything at all.”

“I couldn't hack it in Hollywood, my writing's wasn't bad enough.”