I don't believe in fate, as in, which I - as a Catholic, I think, sort of predestination. But I certainly believe in chance.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button professions.

Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.

I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, but I think there are plenty of people dealing with the darker side of human nature, and if I am going to write about people who are kind and generous and loving and thoughtful, so what? In my life I have met astonishingly good people.

We are taught to be suspicious, especially of anyone who might not look like us or share our beliefs.

You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person.