I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirsted for would exist.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

The prison was very important - as everywhere on earth. Everywhere the building of a prison is the first step in the organization of a civilized state.

We all have such a finite time to leave the world better than we found it.

And, as a matter of fact, I am the chairman of the Amadou Diallo Foundation.

How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.

Concentrate the mind on the present moment.

I am barren of words. For no sounds from my mouth are worthy of your hearing

I think that's very important for romantic comedies, that they do deal with [modern]issues.

The military should get rid of video gambling devices on nearly 100 overseas bases and posts

I think I'm a better mother because of work, because I'm happy. If I wasn't working, I would just be waiting for the kids to come home every day, and living vicariously through their lives.

Hard work and best efforts will not by themselves dig us out of the pit.