Jealousy is such a direct attack on whatever measure of confidence you’ve been able to muster. But if you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with it, because some wonderful, dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry, undeserving writers you know-people who are, in other words, not you.

Get to know your characters as well as you can let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.

So a moral position is not a message. A moral position is a passionate caring inside you.

Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.

Some people seem to understand this - that life and change take time - but I am not one of those people.

Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking.