That's the whole spiritual life. It's learning how to die. And as you learn how to die, you start losing all your illusions, and you start being capable now of true intimacy and love.

When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn't go off and leave us- he enters into our trouble and saves us.

All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.

One way to define spiritual life is getting so tired and fed up with yourself you go on to something better, which is following Jesus.

Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves.

Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.

Prayer is the disciplined refusal to act before God acts.

No life of faith can be lived privately. There must be overflow into the lives of others.

Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God; it whets our appetite.

I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God's business.

Waiting means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions.

Because sometimes I have a need for human warmth, I answered honestly. Sometimes, if I can't feel something like the warmth of a woman's skin, I get so lonely I can't stand it.

The elemental world we all live in is the darkness of the body.

What I see in a lot of music movies, or rock 'n' roll movies, that feature a band is that they're lip-synching.

Pity, unlike hate, can be boxed and put away.

I want to clear up a few myths about myself. People have written that I was a kindergarten teacher and a former Miss Texas, and neither is true.

This editor is a critic. He has pulled out his carving-knife and his tomahawk and is starting after a book which he is going to have for breakfast.

Living inside the shuttle was a little like camping out. We ended up sleeping in our seats. You had to pay attention to housekeeping, not get things too dirty.

What excuses stand in your way? How can you eliminate them?

I've always admired Gene Hackman, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck. I'm showing my age here.

When you're onstage with Chris Rock, anything can happen. He is one of the greatest comic geniuses we've ever seen.