Poetry can only be made out of other poems; novels out of other novels.

The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book.

There is only one way to degrade mankind permanently and that is to destroy language.

Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.

Even the human heart is slightly left of centre.

We are always in the place of beginning; there is no advance in infinity.

The world of literature is a world where there is no reality except that of the human imagination.

This story of loss and regaining of identity is, I think, the framework of all literature.

Man lives, not directly or nakedly in nature like the animals, but within a mythological universe, a body of assumptions and beliefs developed from his existential concerns.

The bible should be taught so early and so thoroughly that it sinks straight to the bottom of the mind where everything that comes along can settle on it.

It seems clear that the Bible belongs to an area of language in which metaphor is functional, and were we have to surrender precision for flexibility.

Love does not leave, it grows and transforms into something different.

When you have something this good, you keep it. Forever. And that's all the magic there is to it.

Our lives can hold just so much. If they're filled with one thing, they can't be filled with another. We ought to do a lot of thinking about what we want to fill them with.

No, Mama. The sweetest hallelujah will be when Billie can walk in the front door of any place she pleases, and nobody will tell her she doesn't belong.

No one earns $100 million. You steal $100 million.

We're just beginning to learn the importance of music in our society.

Forgiveness is not saying that the one who hurt you was right. Forgiveness is stating that God is faithful and he will do what is right.

The person who makes promises to everyone ultimately pleases no one.

You have however within you an inclination towards completeness.

You can make something out of nothing.