But our wounds are part of who we are...and there is nothing left to chance....And pain's the pen that writes the songs....That call us forth to dance

A hunger for beauty is at its heart a hunger for God.

Behind every specific call, whether it is to teach or preach or write or encourage or comfort, there is a deeper call that gives shape to the first: the call to give ourselves away - the call to die.

To allow myself to be loved by God in my deepest brokenness is to experience a love that defies human comprehension.

To be rooted in love is to look beyond surface appearances to see the inner beauty in others often disfigured by sin.

To know that God loves us in the state of grace or disgrace is the most powerful motivation to respond with the aid of grace to His loving call.

People who demand signs never believe them when they come.

Christmas is the celebration of the keeping of a promise. A saving promise.

The role of silence is to create the space where we encounter the silent Presence.

But the Promise showed their wildest dreams had simply not been wild enough.

True friends define each other.

one's rules of propriety make one thirst for the improper.

Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It's the closest music to our humanity - it's like a folk music that rises up out of a culture.

The FBI, to its credit in a self-serving sort of way, rejects the routine use of the polygraph on its own people.

Entrust a secret to one whose importance will not be much increased by divulging it.

I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts.

More than anything else, technology will pave the way for innovative change at Starbucks. The bulk of Starbucks' innovation over the next several years will be technology-focused.

My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple. It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently

Free speech is not just free speech for people you admire. It's also for people who you think of as reprehensible.

London matters to me because it's the center of what I do for a living and has been since Tudor times.