Why do I write? From selfishness. Because this state of liquefied, complex concentration, however faintly and dimly I'm able to perceive it, is the greatest pleasure I know. — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
If your memory was OK you could descend upon on a bookshop – a big enough one so that the staff wouldn’t hassle a browser – and steal the contents of books by reading them. I drank down 1984 while loitering in the 'O' section of the giant Heffers store in Cambridge. When I was full I carried the slopping… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
There have been low moments before, but Christianity is an incredibly adaptable organism, using different parts of its repertoire to mutate into new ecological… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
“Beyond the breakwater you can no longer touch bottom, but you are not afraid, for in this sea the harder you swim the stronger… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
Self-awareness is not the same thing as self-approval, any more than imagination is the same thing as day-dreaming. — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
What follows is more about books than it is about me, but nonetheless it is my inward autobiography, for the words we take into… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
Despite the best efforts of apologists like William Lane Craig, the 'evidence' for Christianity's truth is, in truth, not the kind that science will… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
“You do not chuse where You bestow your Heart. Your Heart bestows Itself, will-you-nill-you, in the Midst of other Business. —” — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
Anyone can be self-educated if they find the loose end of something to care about passionately. — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
For a believer, Christian faith is true to the human heart, not in the sense that any old thing we fancy believing in will… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
When I'm tired and therefore indecisive, it can take half an hour to choose the book I am going to have with me while… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
“...what goes on inside believers is mysterious. So far as it can be guessed at - if for some reason you wanted to guess… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
