"My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. …"

"Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escap…"

"You think it more difficult to turn air into wine than to turn wine into blood?"

"The trouble is I don't believe my unbelief."

"The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you …"

"Have you seen a room from which faith has gone?...Like a marriage from which love has gone...And patience, patience e…"

"The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that m…"

"It is the story-teller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundar…"

"Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered."

"A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are tryi…"