A story is built on characters and reasons.

Fiction demands structures and recognizable shapes. Big surprises only draw attention to the writer's hand.

The better we are at accepting the limits of our world, the more easily we can embrace what we have.

Being with a small publisher has been huge. They bat for me for everything.

I could imagine that a character could do almost anything at any time, and that was the freedom of the whole thing. But keeping track of what was plausible for certain characters [was the challenge].

I'm never going to write a whole paragraph describing what a living room looks like.

I used to do jacket design, and I'm very conscious of covers, and probably meddle more than other authors would.

It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

There were only the great diamonds and sapphires and emerald mists and velvet inks of space, with God's voice mingling among the crystal fires.

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.No time to stand beneath the boughsAnd stare as long as sheep or cows...

When you teach them-teach them not to fear. Fear is good in small amounts, but when it is a constant, pounding companion, it cuts away at who you are and makes it hard to do what you know is right.

You have to make your wedding day all about you.

The things he did on purpose were usually no different from the mistakes he made by accident.

Ships feare fire more then water. [Ships fear fire more than water.]

A proof only becomes a proof after the social act of "accepting it as a proof".

Motion is a great tranquilizer.

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