The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.

Eternal life can mean utter reverence for life itself.

I don't care about eternity. I was not their when it began, I will not be there when it ends

Eternity is today

Getting started, keeping going, getting started again - in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others.

As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.