It took me years to learn that sentences in fiction must do much more than stand around and look pretty.

How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible.

I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

Fear is ... a kind of unintentional storytelling that we are all born knowing how to do.

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?

But the past is long, and the future is short.

It requires a certain kind of bravery, I suppose, to choose the status quo. There's a certain boldness to inaction.

We were a different kind of Christian, the quiet, reasonable kind, a breed embarrassed by the mention of miracles.

I can write all the way through the morning, when my mind is clear, and there are no distractions.

To some degree we all live with uncertainty. We have no control over the future. Yet we carry on, we persevere, because, I guess, it's the way we're made.

My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible.

I tossed a stone into the Sea To see what it would do for me And the ripples went out And became ocean waves To return to the Sea inside of me

In a life that does not last forever create something that will last forever.

What we see depends mainly on what we look for

Young folk silly folk old folk cold folk.

Nothing to be honest. I am a fighter. I'm crazy already. I'm not afraid of ghosts or anything.

We still get those kind of cats coming out to our shows. Once you're into it, you're into it for a lifetime.

Midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence.

I hope I have repaid Australia for the humanity it showed me, as it has shown to so many others over the years.

The Eucharist is essential for us: it is Christ who wishes to enter our lives and fill us with his grace.

I'm definitely a pop artist at heart.