My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.

To be stories at all they must be a series of events: but it must be understood that this series - the plot, as we call it - is only really a new whereby to catch something else.

The literary man re-reads, other men simply read.

Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about.

The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.

If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will - that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings - then we may take it (that) it is worth paying.