You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors.

Both my parents are Methodist preachers, I grew up in a church.

I still consider myself a very spiritual person but the structure of the church isn't really for me.

Sometimes, there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it. Like my heart's going to cave in.

I grew up in the church and had religion in my life for a long time. I'm not really a church goer, but I definitely have a hunger for a spiritual connection to the world and for my soul to be healed.

I wanted fame, but I thought it would be incremental, and I became afraid of the overnight-sensation thing.

I didn't know anything about Opus Die except from pop culture, like Dan Brown novels, which I knew wasn't really knowing anything about Opus Die.

But as a kid, I loved 'Monty Python.' My Dad was a devout watcher. We used to watch it when we ate dinner!

Then my extended family, there are preachers and evangelists, former priests. So I have quite a bit of history with Church, religion and spirituality.

You are beautiful and magical and perfect, especially because of your flaws. Those cracks are what let the light in, baby.

Americans in 1763 lived always in the shadow and presence of death. Death was not yet romanticized as it would be in the 19th century, nor yet sanitized as it would be in the 20th century.

We live in a nation of pigs and murderers.

Chick lit was amazing, and I was thrilled to be part of it.

We can’t solve problems for others. We can introduce them to the Lord.

To have courage, one must first be afraid. The deeper the fear, the more difficult the climb toward courage.

But anything that can be called "rigor" is lost exactly where the things become interesting and non trivial.

You can't trust other people. If it's important, you have to do it yourself.

Above all, the state of grace is absolutely necessary at the moment of death; without it, salvation and supernatural happiness the beatific vision of God - are impossible.

If I'm dying from anything, it's from indifference and red tape.