The victim mentality may be the last uncomplicated thing about life in America.

On social welfare the Church does so much good around the world - nuns running schools and homeless shelters, priests ministering to people who are in crisis.

All parents should be aware that when they mock or curse gay people, they may be mocking or cursing their own child.

Every story has already been told. Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had.

You write to suit some sense in yourself and trust that that will resonate with a certain wider readership.

The New Testament has had a really powerful effect on how I write and how I live my life.

the more humdrum aspects of life do not make for gripping reading. To render them compelling, a writer must describe the universal in eloquent and evocative prose. Alas, Frey's writing suggests that this was not an option, and he came up with something else.