To be a person who sees a political ad on television and takes the statements in it as fact, how can you exist in this world? How is it you're not robbed daily by charlatans who knock at your door?

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

My odd feelings of the other week seem to me quite ridiculous today: I can no longer enter into them.

Somebody should have warned the Trojans. Beware of gifts bearing Greeks.

It is better to fail at your own life than to succeed at someone else's.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

Take the limits off of yourself. You will never rise higher than your thinking. Create a great vision for your life.

Life is a gift of God, of the God of Coincidence!

Jesus brings mystery, paradox, and tension - rarely did someone get a straight answer out of Him

I can always see what I've done wrong. I'm always learning. I'm the perennial student.

No place of grace for those who avoid the Face. No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the Voice.

where civil blood makes civil hands unclean