Looking back on his profession, he contemptuously called it being a vendor of words. Alas, my own trade!

Malcolm Muggeridge
A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), 3

The artist has his hands full and does his duty if he attends to his art. He can safely leave evangelizing to the evangelists.

Flannery O’Connor
Mystery and Manners (FSG, 1970), 171

Making up is a very mysterious thing. When you ‘have an idea’ could you tell anyone exactly how you thought of it?

C.S. Lewis
Of Other Worlds, ed. Walter Hooper (Harcourt, 1975), 42

It often happens that the reason for doing something only emerges clearly after it has been done, conscious intent and all the various practicalities which go therewith being but the tip of an iceberg of unconscious intent.

Malcolm Muggeridge
A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), ix

There ought really to be a Clown Laureate, as there is a Poet Laureate. As a matter of fact, in practice, though not officially, there usually is one. And it sometimes happens that the same person combines the two roles.

Malcolm Muggeridge
A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), 76

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

It is right that it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.

William Blake
Quoted in Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), 65-66

We are all a patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game. And there is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

Michel de Montaigne
The Complete Works, trans. Donald M. Frame (Everyman’s Library, 2003), 296

Everything in our life to-day conspires to thrust most people into prescribed tracks, in what can be called a sort of trance of action. Hurrying, without any significant reason, from spot to spot at the maximum speed obtainable, drugged in that mechanical activity, how is the typical individual of this epoch to do some detached thinking for himself? All his life is disposed with a view to banishing reflection.

Wyndham Lewis
Time and Western Man (Beacon, 1957), vii

A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore a will to fight for a better world.

Saul Alinksy
Rules for Radicals (Vintage, 1972), 49-50

When you are impressed with the positive value of anything, whether it be a way of life or a creed or an art-form, you do not fall back upon defensive postures, for that is to accept defeat in advance. You go forth in the evangelical spirit and seek out the opponent.

Richard Weaver
The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver, ed. George M. Curtis III and John J. Thompson Jr. (Liberty Press, 1987), 10

To pander to those who have no stomach for straight language, and insist upon bland, noncontroversial sauces, is a waste of time. . . . We approach a critical point when our tongues trap our minds. I do not propose to be trapped by tact at the expense of truth.

Saul Alinksy
Rules for Radicals (Vintage, 1972), 49-50

A writer writes about what he is able to make believable.

Flannery O’Connor
Mystery and Manners (FSG, 1970), 173

I do not teach, I tell [relate].

Michel de Montaigne
The Complete Works, trans. Donald M. Frame (Everyman’s Library, 2003), 742

[T]here is no identity without historicity.

Richard Weaver
The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver, ed. George M. Curtis III and John J. Thompson Jr. (Liberty Press, 1987), 251

We live perforce, and always must, in earthly cities. They are our location, our set, with history for our script.

Malcolm Muggeridge
A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), 19

Freedom might be more efficient, but it also might possibly be more enjoyable.

Christopher Hitchens
Choice: The Best of Reason, ed. Nick Gillespie (BenBella, 2004), 5

Those who direct our intelligence services are not blessed with the insights and vision of God—though they are sometimes prone to suppose so.

Malcolm Muggeridge
A Third Testament (Orbis, 2004), xi

You may ask, why not simply call this literature Christian? Unfortunately, the word Christian is no longer reliable. It has come to mean anyone with a golden heart. And a golden heart would be a positive interference in the writing of fiction.

Flannery O’Connor
Mystery and Manners (FSG, 1970), 192

The soundness of any plan depends on the time; circumstances and things roll about and change incessantly. I have fallen into some serious and important mistakes in my life, not for lack of good counsel but for lack of good luck. There are secret parts in the matters we handle which cannot be guessed, especially in human nature—mute factors that do not show, factors sometimes unknown to their possessor himself, which are brought forth and aroused by unexpected occasions. If my prudence has been unable to see into them and predict them, I bear it no ill will; its responsibility is restricted within its limitations. It is the outcome that beats me; and if it favors the course I have refused, there is no help for it; I do not blame myself; I accuse my luck, not my work.

Michel de Montaigne
The Complete Works, trans. Donald M. Frame (Everyman’s Library, 2003), 749

It takes readers as well as writers to make literature.

Flannery O’Connor
Mystery and Manners (FSG, 1970), 181