A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

Sometimes it takes failure to figure out who you aren't.

I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.

We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. The writer's job is to turn the unspeakable into words - not just into any words, but if we can, into rhythm and blues.

My understanding is that you get to choose which of your thoughts to go with.

I could become like that dyslexic agnostic in the old joke - the one who lies in bed and tries to figure out if his dog exists.