For twenty years I have ached to go back home, when there was nobody there to whom I could return.

I write because writing is the gift God has given me to help people in the world.

For too long, and despite what people told me, I had fallen for what the culture said about beauty, youth, features, heights, weights, hair textures, upper arms.

If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.

I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.

Needless to say, there was no one around remotely fitting the description of a normal person: I was at a writing conference.

...the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.