I wish I had thrown out the bathroom scale at age 16. Weighing yourself every morning is like waking up and asking Dick Cheney to validate your sense of inner worth.

Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.

When you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

I do not have deep theological understanding or opinion, but I do not read the Bible as the literal word of God.

I read the same amount of nonfiction and fiction.

Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole.

If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.