“Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull.”

“He who would be a writer, fine, Must take a deal of pains, Must criticize his every line, And mix his ink with brains.”

“The destiny of every human being is decided by what goes on inside his skull when confronted by what goes on outside his skull.”

“Who is willing to be satisfied with a job that expresses all his limitations? He will accept such work only as a 'means of livelihood' while he waits to discover his 'true vocation'. The world is full of unsuccessful businessmen who still secretly believe they were meant to be artists or writers or actors in the movies.”

“Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.”

“I recalled the myth that I had once heard as a university student – thirty-six hidden saints in the world, all of them doing the work of humble men, carpenters, cobblers, shepherds. They bore the sorrows of the earth and they had a line of communication with God, all except one, the hidden saint, who was forgotten. The forgotten one was left to struggle on his own, with no line of communication to that which he so hugely needed. Corrigan had lost his line with God: he bore the sorrows on his own, the story of stories.”