“What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?”

“Max would conclude, "that's who I want to be. The pope. And I'll do the same thing he does. I'll keep all the goddamn money.”

“Interesting, Miles thought. Like himself, Father Mark, as a child, had been reassured by the imagined proximity of God, whereas adults, perhaps because they so often were up to no good, took more c...”

“You can't possibly judge your ability to control something until you've experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand?”

“One of the odd things about middle age...was the strange decisions a man discovers hes made by not really making them.”

“To his surprise he...discovered that it was possible to be good at what you had little interest in, just as it had been possible to be bad at somethingthat you cared about a great deal.”

“every time God forgives us, God is saying that God's own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us.”

“I've never heard anyone say "I wish I hadn't forgiven.”

“We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness an...”