Sometimes the essay is where we end up when everything that we know must change.

The whole movement of an essay is propelled by a fundamentally human impulse to want to figure things out.

Inclusiveness isn't what I want to push back against. The obsession with facts is.

Pedagogically, we need definitions and borders. They help us get our heads around what we're talking about.

In some ways we want definitions that can help protect our own interpretations of the genre.

An essay is something that tracks the evolution of a human mind.

I think that in a lot of readers' minds the essay is a lot more utilitarian than it is art.

What I didn't realize when I was in school and what I suspect a lot of young writers today don't get either is that you have to create the world that you want to exist in as an artist.

I know it sounds silly, but disrespecting a dead writer by sitting in a chair that probably never belonged to him still felt like a risk to me. So I chickened out.

I thought that I wasn't an essayist because I just didn't see myself in a lot of the essays that were popular at the time. That's why I joined the poetry program in grad school.

A risk is something that feels risky to the person who's taking it.

In your own mind-darkened, will-paralyzed, conscience-dulled soul, God can make the light penetrate and turn the darkness of your own life into day, if you will let Him.

Is there stop 'n' go counseling for couples on the run?

It's a lot of money, but in reality what's important is the kids health. I suppose the day could come where we could walk away from it and figure out a new way for (that) funding.

You can become all God created you to be even if you've had difficulties, even if you weren't born into a good, loving family, God still has a plan for your life.

The thrill of being ignored!

The older I get, the more I can't stand violence and have a hard time with seeing people die in horrific ways. It gets harder and harder to watch and deal with that stuff.

Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" not forgive us and smite those bastards who hurt us.

I can only say I wish I had slept with everyone I am accused of.

The medieval hall house was very primitive when it became the characteristic form of dwelling of the landowner of the Middle Ages.

I became the singer by default. I didn't know if I could do it. We tried other people, but couldn't find anyone we liked.