If you're too happy about anything, fate usually gives you a good sock in the jaw and knocks you down.

We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.

Agape love is...profound concern for the well-being of another, without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process.

When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surrounds us or we light a candle to see by.

Creativity comes from accepting that you're not safe, from being absolutely aware, and from letting go of control. It's a matter of seeing everything - even when you want to shut your eyes.

It was a dark and stormy night.

Because we fail to listen to each other's stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race.

If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.

The challenge is never based on the size of the obstacle that stands before me. Rather, it is dictated by the degree of faith that rests within me.

I am conscious of the fact that the subject of hell is not a very pleasant one. It is very unpopular, controversial, and misunderstood . . .As a minister I must deal with it. I cannot ignore it.

There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.

It's very depressing to live in a time where it's easier to break an atom than a prejudice.

I never write in a linear way. And I tell students not to. You can only know so much about a book when you first start.

My parents never talked to me like I was a kid. Maybe that's why I've been seen as mature.

The connoisseur might be defined as a laconic art historian, and the art historian as a loquacious connoisseur.

It's endlessly interesting to be organizing and hearing possible solutions or thinking of possible solutions and how to put efforts together. It makes everything else boring, actually.

It would be great to have a little getaway place somewhere hot, maybe down in Mexico, since I love it there. But now that I've banned myself from the sun, I don't know how that will work.

I did a series called Ned and Stacey for two years for Fox back in the 90s. I was writer on it as well as a producer, and it was very important to me that there were no contemporary references.