“The job of the artist is not to resolve or beautify, but to hold complexities, to see and make clear.”

“Violence is central in our lives, a constant and unavoidable reality. Experience is not a linear construct moving from one point to another - childhood to maturity, "bad" to "good," beginning to end - but a wheel turning around a point that shifts between hope and despair. "At the still point of the turning world," the job of the artist is not to resolve or beautify, but to hold complexities, to see and make clear.”

“The more truly we can see life as a fairytale, the more clearly the tale resolves itself into war with the dragon who is wasting fairyland.”

“In my opinion, it is not the writer’s job to solve such problems as the existence of God, pessimism, etc. The job of the artist is only to record who under which circumstances said or thought what about God or pessimism. The artist must not judge his characters or their words; he must only be an impartial witness… It is high time for writers— and especially for true artists— to admit that it is impossible to explain anything… if an artist whom the crowd trusts admits that he understands nothing of what he sees, this fact alone will make a great contribution to the realm of thought and will mark a great step forward.”

“Books should be like magical jewelled boxes. It’s the writer’s job to tell the story. My job [the artist] is to make you want to pick up the box, and to peer inside.”

“Our job on earth, as I see it, is to hold on through the hard parts and try and be a good person.”