With each draft, the work gets better, and usually that means tighter. It means getting the precise word, not the approximate word.

I grew up in a house without many books. The books the nuns made us read in school didn't interest me.

In revision, your imagination becomes deeply engaged with your material. It's when you come to know your characters and begin to perceive their motivations and values.

A pure love is a selfless love, but can desire ever be selfless?

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

Drug programs began to turn their attention and money away from prevention and into maintenance. Methadone was cheaper than social workers, I suppose.

A lack of narrative structure, as you know, will cause anxiety.

You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even know it.

Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved.

Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.

The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.

I was transformed the dayMy ego shattered, And all the superficial, materialThings that matteredTo me before, Suddenly ceasedTo matter.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present.

Faith is stronger than so-called reality.

Clarity is a sign of intellectual energy.

At that moment, I hated dating more than doing my laundry

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.

I'm always open to somebody else having a better idea, but I feel like, if it feels real, then people aren't thinking about it and they're just doing the acting of it.

My idols were Michael Jackson and The Beatles and I would watch Justin Timberlake and John Mayer perform and I knew I wanted to do what they were doing!

It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.

The most reliable pleasure afforded by theater is the intermission.