If we are to be aware of life while we are living it, we must have the courage to relinquish our hard-earned control of ourselves.

The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.

Art is communication.

When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.

We are suspicious of grace. We are afraid of the very lavishness of the gift.

When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.

Aeschylus writes, "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grade of God.

Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.

Reading about the response of people in stories, plays, poems, helps us to respond more courageously and openly at our own moments of turning.

Freedom is a terrible gift, and the theory behind all dictatorships is that "the people" do no want freedom.

To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.

I love Edit. He gives me tons of second chances to make things just right between us.

I embrace my weirdness and the things I maybe didn't used to love about myself. Those are things that make me different.

I'm not one to wallow, but I am one to feel the sting of a slap for a while, I think.

Our duty is to preach the gospel to all men.... This is what God expects of us

One day we'll all be dead, and none of this will matter" -The Brightest Star in the Sky.

Custom is custom: it is built of brass, boiler-iron, granite; facts, reasonings, arguments have no more effect upon it than the idle winds have upon Gibraltar.

Chance is a second master.

I think that's good that I have to watch how I act and what I say. I think that's a part of growing up.

Noah's wife, who said to him after 40 days and 40 nights, It's your turn to spread the papers on the floor! Never got a dinner!

A higher concept of yourself involves taking on new truths and shedding your old views of what you can achieve. This is the only way you can achieve your desires.