The bottom line is that my life has already almost slipped away from me. I have two choices: I can end it or I can fight like hell to save it.

It's enough just to speak when spoken to, to give some minimal reaction to a stimulus. But to actually be the stimulus doesn't even occur to me.

The body remembers what your mind forgets.

In these flashes of insight, I understand for a moment that one of the great dividends of darkness is an increased sensitivity to the light.

The infinity of this vacancy, the pervasive pain, the longing for some spirit, some lightness, some joy - that's all that is left.

Psychologists call it "free-floating" anxiety. What contradictory words. Anxiety doesn't free-float. It stalks. It attacks. It lands on you with a thud.

Some struggles are so solitary that they drown in words.

Sometimes hell has no words.

I always feel bad laughing at people who act crazy. But sometimes the things they do are so damned funny. I wonder what I'd look like if I slipped a few notches on the mental-health index.

God you are so good, you give what we need.

Anytime I'm not reading my Bible or praying, I feel like I'm wasting my time. [Mark's brother-in-law, Matt ________, speaking]

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like all-embracing compassion.

Have you ever not known something but known it at the same time?

You know it's right when you feel this undeniable connection and chemistry.

When it comes to betting on yourself... you're a chicken-livered coward if you hesitate.

If you don't like me, why do you waste your time making fun of me?

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.