“So I watch her work and put all her energy, all her force, all herself, all is inside her work. Does she think that this is what life means? She goes to work in the dark and comes home when its dar...”

“Your mother wasnt upset. Scars stay with you so you dont forget, she said. She seemed almost satisfied.”

“Anger is essential if one is to survive this world. Its not just a degenerate emotion that destroys everything in its path. If it were so completely destructive, why would people of every religion ...”

“Can you lose your inborn talents? Can the gifts you come into this world with be taken away without your even noticing? Maybe its my fault for wanting always to stem the fires within me? Perhaps th...”

“Sometimes, when you are busy and children ask funny questions, you dont think so much. You just answer quickly so they will leave you alone. If you dont answer, they will just keep asking or they w...”

“I struggle to discover what these silent sons of mine want, but words have always failed me. They are sullen even as they tell me they are okay. I know they are lying but there is nothing I can do.”

“There is always more we can do in ministry, but God is not asking 'Can you do more?'. He is asking 'Do you love me?' Some of those extras are not always as vital as we think them to be.”

“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administra...”

“In our secular world, we no longer see eternal paradise as a carrot at the end of the stick of life, but try to cram as much as possible into our relatively short time on the planet instead. This i...”

“Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves”

“Love, like fire, goes out without fuel.”

“She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire.”

“Is there shame in living off your fellow man or being unable to take care ofyourself? You bet. But a person whos willing to work and pay their own waycan at least take pride in that even if they ca...”

“A true encounter with the living God will break the spirit of religiosity, empty man of his pride and conform even the most vile and wicked into a living vessel for His glory.”

“He has come to the most dreadful conclusion a literary man can come to, the conclusion that the ordinary view is the right one. It is only the last and wildest kind of courage that can stand on a t...”