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.

You can change the world with a hot bath, if you sink into it from a place of knowing that you are worth profound care, even when you're dirty and rattled.

One line of dialogue that rings true reveals character in a way that pages of description can't.

...[T]here should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.

My theology is based on what I tell my Sunday-school kids - that they are loved and chosen, AS IS, now, today. That the moment is holy, sacred, and all there is - and that we are only as sick as our secrets. So TELL IT.

Joy is the best makeup. But a little lipstick is a close runner-up.

Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right.