“Writing means not just staring ugliness in the face, but finding a way to embrace it.”

“Seeking Your face and not only Your hand, I find You embracing me just as I am.”

“Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.”

“With that height, plus a face of an ugliness so transcendant as to be grotesquely beautiful, it was obvious why she had embraced a religious life--Christ was the only man from whom she might expect embrace in return.”

“I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think the world is their norm.”

“I just can't find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read.”