Secrets had the power to kill a marriage, she said. Nonsense, Sylvie said, it was secrets that could save a marriage.

They were lucky. They'd been given history.

And with a massive roar the fifth wall comes down and the house of fiction falls, taking Viola and Sunny and Bertie with it. They melt into thin air and disappear. Pouf!

Popular versus literary—a false divide?

All the birds who were never born, all the songs that were never sung and so can only exist in the imagination.And this one is Teddy's.

Oh, man, ‘the nursery, ’ ” Dominic said, “what a hell-hole. If I had kids I’d give them the nicest room in the house.”“You do have kids, ” his kid said.“Oh, yeah, well, right, you know what I mean.

If an author was a god, then he was a very poor second-rate one, scrabbling around in the foothills of Olympus.

was there a store somewhere full of unwanted secrets?

Teddy shuddered. The idea of the sublime little bird being plucked from the sky, of its exquisite song being interrupted in full flight, was horrible to him.

Depression is a reality with everyone. What’s important is the ability to move on.

My lips on your body trace the story of my love.

A missional church is a church that must live the dialectic. It must stay in the journey.

I believe in status symbols.

The old field of space, time, matter, and the senses is to be weeded, dug, and sown for a new crop. We may be tired of that old field: God is not.

That is what poetry can do. It speaks to us of what does not exist, which is not only better than what exists, but even more like the truth.

The body knows things about which the mind is ignorant

Three meals plus bedtime make four sure blessings a day.

Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of all misfortune.

Our Heavenly Father can appreciate our love for Him by how well we serve Him and how well we serve our fellowmen.