The Swedish he knew was mostly from Bergman films. He had learned it as a college student, matching the subtitles to the sounds. In Swedish, he could only converse on the darkest of subjects.

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.

Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop. I'm oblivious by nature.

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

No matter how much we love a book, the experience of reading it isn't complete until we can give it to someone who will love it as much as we do

Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.

You are always someones favorite unfolding story

Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list.

There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.

Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.

If you are happy for a day, a thousand people notice it, but when you are sad for years, everyone just walks away.

Friendship is a union of spirits a marriage of hearts and the bond there of virtue.

My strength comes from my abdomen. It's the center of gravity and the source of real power.

You never question the truth of something until you have to explain it to a skeptic.

When the depths are upheld by the Holy Spirit, then the reaction is Christian.

Everything has changed. The flying changed. The airports have changed.

I did not know from a scientific perspective why I did not believe in evolution - but I knew from a Biblical perspective it had to be wrong or my faith was in trouble.

One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.

You fixed yourself. You didn’t need me.” “No, Sydney.” My voice was ragged. “I do need you. You have no idea how much I need you.

The artist is a kind of a seer and by nature he is optimistic because he believes in the future.