“I would probably have to say that reading fiction those stories fill the space that other people might use religious stories for. The bulk of what I know about human life Ive gotten from novels. A...”

“Quite a metaphor. The person in the most pain wins. Does that mean I get a Blue Ribbon?”

“Laurie herself was more focused on the years when her kids were little, when she felt so necessary and purposeful, a battery all charged up with love. Every day she used it up and every night it go...”

“When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.”

“I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.”

“Eve still marveled on a daily basis at the speed with which her own life had changed. A year ago, she'd been lost and flailing, and now she was found. She wanted to call it a miracle, but it was si...”

“I shall treat the nature and power of the Affects, and the power of the Mind over them, by the same Method by which, in the preceding parts, I treated God and the Mind, and I shall consider human a...”

“He knew how to handle pain. You had to lie down with pain, not draw back away from it. You let yourself sort of move around the outside edge of pain like with cold water until you finally got up yo...”

“Sometimes, people dont need our homes to live in or our bodies to lean on. All they need are our hands to lift them up.”

“Yes, I was infatuated with you: I am still. No one has ever heightened such a keen capacity of physical sensation in me. I cut you out because I couldn't stand being a passing fancy. Before I give ...”

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

“By embracing your subconscious, you gain a different way of seeing and experiencingan expanded perception that opens a doorway, not only to lucid dreams, but also to the mythic dimension. As in lu...”

“In contrast we let go of existence, meaning, and the sublime as categories to describe the object God. Instead these become ways in which we engage with the world. Yet, as we affirm the world in lo...”

“It's all about music, because music is basically what's... been my avenue out of maybe being involved in things I shouldn't be.”

“The amount of hassle involved in travel can be overwhelming.”