I would seriously rather be in a long line at the DMV than eat with people I don't know.

Hope begins in the dark.

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You're done. It doesn't necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the nightmare.

I like to read away as much of the afternoon as possible, until real life rears its ugly head.

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

Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.

You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. ... You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on your computer and bring up the right file. ... You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. ... Then your mental illnesses arrive at the desk like your sickest, most secretive relatives. And they pull up chairs in a semicircle around the computer, and they try to be quiet but you know they are there with their weird coppery breath, leering at you behind your back.