[George W.] Bush's presidency was one of the great nightmares of my life to date.

The problems we have with our current technology often reveal our own human foibles, and it's these new emotions of cyberspace which reveal our struggles.

I think the future is intrinsically linked with our universal human problems. In fact, it's these very problems, and how we deal with them, which will determine our future.

I realize that I've had a very idyllic vision of what spirituality looks like. Honestly, most of Western culture has an idyllic and simplified idea of what enlightenment entails.

I'll take a [Pavel] Chekhov comparison any day! He's of course one of the great masters at the short story form, and has helped define traditional conflict as we understand it.

I set many of my stories in a gritty "realist" world, but one that is plagued by an overuse of technology, which is akin to the world we find ourselves living in now.

I really admire the experimentalists who challenge traditional narrative - writers like Ishmael Reed, Michael Martone, Donald Barthelme, Tatyana Tolstaya, George Saunders, and many others.

"Openness" [story] ultimately asks this same question - can a relationship survive complete honesty? As a romantic, I want to say "Yes, of course!" But, over time, I've come to agree with Dan Savage.

If you feel the need to laugh at people's weaknesses, laugh at yours first.

When a man's willing and eager God joins in.

Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.

Made my bed and here I lie, try to hold my head up high. Lying to myself sometimes, bad decisions but I, I won't cry.

Happiness doesn't require laughter, only well-being and a sense that the world is breaking someone else's heart, not mine.

It seems the more I think about not sinning, the more I sin, but the more I think about just loving Jesus, the less I seem to sin. Falling in love seems to be the key.

Art has to be incredibly layered. Symbols, signifiers... layers that relate. Combine signifiers with more abstract notions. Push! Vary lines.

I wish I could escape into some alter-ego, just so I could feel more comfortable onstage.

In some of the best worship songs we bring our praises to God - yet at the same time also end up preaching to ourselves.

Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgement.