Poorly written novels--no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters--are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying.

You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.

You shall know the truth, and it will make you odd.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul.

Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

...you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.

[To] know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility . . .

It is the business of the artist to uncover the strangeness of truth

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

I am repeating... It's not a drill, ... It's real....

If you want to plan a revolution, you never do it in public - the authorities show up and arrest everyone.

Without emotional control you cannot play, influence; you cannot react. You have to know what you have to do and not react. You have to be cool.

I wanted to play incredibly challenging, multifaceted characters. Because we are all a puzzle.

Dogs are very, very pleasant with people that they're connected to.

You know who was a hero? Franklin Roosevelt.

To love someone is to catch your breath whenever he walks in the room.

And if one of our instruments breaks, it doesn't matter. We have fallen into the place where everything is music.

I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.

The thunder of love is unassailable.