To not follow Jesus is to be unmoved. To be unmoved is to risk the greatest danger of all: To misunderstand and misrepresent God.

Being a “friend of sinners” is an accusation that Christians should wear as a badge of honor, for nothing could honor Jesus more, and nothing is more revealing of who God actually is.

To take Christ into our well-ordered, well-kept lives is in many ways to ask for trouble, for he will not leave well enough alone.

Military people never seem to apologize for killing each other yet novelists feel ashamed for writing some nice inert paper book that is not certain to be read by anybody.

Let no one be fooled by the fact that we may write in English, for we intend to do unheard of things with it.

Seven times up, eight times down

Each day I will accomplish one thing on my to do list.

Look at politics; they're always in competition over an election, who wants to win. It's just who we are, it's what we do.

Sarah Palin is to women what John Wayne Gacy was to birthday clowns.

Where there is no desire or pursuits, there is no wholeness. But there are satisfying lesser states, fragments.

Sondheim is the Shakespeare of the musical theater world.

I think those of us who use language are always trying for this, trying to keep everything from floating away by trying to write about it despite failure.

I don't rate them, I just hit them.