One cannot escape the harsh fact that as a ministerial profession, the priesthood has very serious problems. They are not new. They did not develop yesterday or last year.

We are born with two incurable diseases, life, from which we die, and hope, which says maybe death isn't the end.

I think the real problem for American religion are those minority of fundamentalists who try to identify political policies with religion.

The Catholic men are more upset about women not being able to be priests than are Catholic women.

I write easily, let's put it that way. And in a novel particularly, the characters take over. And they tell me what to say and they tell me what they're doing. And I'm a third of the way into a novel and then I just let the characters finish it for me.

The leadership lost its nerve. Instead of taking the lead in the reform movement... they pulled the plug on it. They tried and are still trying to return the church to the dry ice of the previous century and a half.

My songs will pass and be forgotten. What counts, however, is that I sang them.