I have always believed in trying to be a good person and giving to the world, and treating others in a just, kind, merciful way.

In coming to an appreciation of the Mormon Church, one of the things that has been most compelling to me is the Mormon understanding of family, which extends beyond the general injunction to be fruitful and multiply, and addresses the permanence of love relationships into eternity, and embraces the sanctity of having children.

When I was younger, not being accepted made me enraged, but now, I am not inclined to dismantle my history. If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes-and we become attached to the heroic strain in our personal history.

I don't believe that there is anyone of faith whose faith would not be strengthened by those experiences of family.

Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.

I tend to find the ecstasy hidden in ordinary joys, because I did not expect those joys to be ordinary to me.

The Church responds to antiquated social realities, and those realities remain much more current in Utah precisely because of the Church.