I'd decided to establish a new rule for myself: read for half an hour an evening, no matter what.

She measured time in pages. Half an hour, to her, meant ten pages read, or fourteen, depending on the size of the type, and when you think of time in this way there isn’t time for anything else.

To her credit, though, Trace didn't lose her famous temper, not at that moment. At eighteen she was already expert at the older woman's art of fermenting rage, conserving it, for later use.

I couldn't imagine her leaving this world without ripping its fabric.

There’s always a choice. That’s God’s way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There’s no set of leg-irons on you. But... this is what God wants of you.

In America, communities existed before governments. There were many groups of people with a common sense of purpose and a feeling of duty to one another before there were political institutions.

Our political experiment of democracy, the last refuge of cheap misgovernment.

No man can give me any word but Wait.

For about two years, I was a little wild. I was out partying, having adventures.

We tend to think of the problems of globalization and cultural identity as peculiar to our times. In fact they are rooted in ancient problems of civic belonging.

When we carve out a niche for ourselves in our imagined future, and decide that we won't be happy until we achieve it, we can only feel threatened and anxious over anything that stands in our way.

Everyone may not be good, but there's always something good in everyone. Never judge anyone shortly because every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

I believe our world desperately needs Good News.

I don't believe that you can possibly separate expression from thought in an imaginative work. The better a thing is expressed, the more completely it is thought.