one thing about having a baby is that each step of the way you simply cannot imagine loving him any more than you already do, because you are bursting with love, loving as much as you are humanly capable of- and then you do, you love him even more.

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

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

The last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling-and it washed over me.

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.

A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way.

I think Jesus is divine love manifest on Earth, as it comes through the community of Christians.