An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer.

How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible.

I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

Fear is ... a kind of unintentional storytelling that we are all born knowing how to do.

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?

But the past is long, and the future is short.

It requires a certain kind of bravery, I suppose, to choose the status quo. There's a certain boldness to inaction.

We were a different kind of Christian, the quiet, reasonable kind, a breed embarrassed by the mention of miracles.

I can write all the way through the morning, when my mind is clear, and there are no distractions.

To some degree we all live with uncertainty. We have no control over the future. Yet we carry on, we persevere, because, I guess, it's the way we're made.

My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible.

The worst bullies you will ever encounter in your life are your own thoughts.

Plenty of foods inside my stomach.Soul is empty.

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.

Movies are an art form that is very available to the masses.

Every sin provokes its punishment.

As a cub reporter, I devoured books about journalism.

Great tech opportunities happen only once.

As the ongoing industrial crusade to turn all earthly life to commercial purpose relentlessly impoverishes the biosphere and human culture, our living images of graceful possibility dwindle.

The point to remember about selling things is that, as well as creating atmosphere and excitement around your products, you've got to know what you're selling.

So much of who we are is where we have been.