I like to think about the genre, the essay or the memoir, as much as I enjoy writing within its fluid parameters. And teaching allows me to think about it, to articulate it, and to explore it.

How long do we live in the fictions of our past? And how do we convince anyone that who we write is not necessarily who we are?

We read the world - television, movies, songs, books - and the people in it through the lens of our own lives.

Luck is everything... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.

You don't ever lose your dream. You don't give that up. I tell that to the players. If you don't have dreams, you don't have anything to live for.

It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.

Through the most simple things which we do all the time, we can feel out to which degree we honor everything with our inner attention.

Frank Lloyd Wright... his things were beautiful but not very functional.

Yet earth has never child she may not slay, Nor sea a lover that she cannot kill.

Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.

Loving once and only once is possible - anything is possible.

Face the giants in your life, slay them, and move on. Do not be daunted by the mistakes and failures in your life.

One has to strive for a very open liberal society.