I don't much believe in the idea of characters. I write with words, that is all. Whether those words are put in the mouth of this or that character does not matter to me. ↗
That is what I define as a novel: something that has a beginning, a middle and an end, with characters and a plot that sustain interest from the first sentence to the last. But that is not what I do at all. ↗
The relationship between reader and characters is very difficult. It is even more peculiar than the relationship between the writer and his characters. ↗
Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy. ↗
Faith is an act of rational choice, which determines us to act as if certain things were true, and in the confident expectation that they will prove to be true. ↗
Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the affinity and attraction which we feel in ourselves. ↗
A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie. ↗
