Hardship makes the world obscure.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

Life isn’t life without real butter.

Those blue pools still wavered between her eyes and mouth. “I’m gonna kiss you now, minou.”She might have nodded. She might have blinked. One for yes, two for hell yeah.

Laughter can be more satisfying than honor more precious than money more heart-cleansing than prayer.

If you have a connection to someone, it doesn't matter what their exterior is.

Insecurities are about as useful as trying to put the pin back in the grenade.

We often are consoled by our want of reason for misfortunes that reason could not have comforted.

I think when you see [Donald] Trump in person, my reaction is you kind of enjoy it. It's kind of an enjoyable night out.

In truth, the more we lean into life, the more we authentically interact with the world, the brighter our flame.

How many people in the pews know that [ Jonathan Edwards] is both a founder of evangelicalism and, say, an idealist who denied that the material world exists?

When we look after the welfare of others, we promote and participate in God’s kingdom work.