I feel incredibly successful. I make a living as a writer and am able to help support a big family, my church, my bleeding-heart causes.

Some people wanted to get rich or famous, but my friends and I wanted to get real. We wanted to get deep. (Also, I suppose, we wanted to get laid.)

I have a very dark sense of humor. I swear. I have a very playful relationship with Jesus.

I took notes on the people around me, in my town, in my family, in my memory. I took notes on my own state of mind, my grandiosity, the low self-esteem. I wrote down the funny stuff I overheard. I learned to be like a ship's rat, veined ears trembling, and I learned to scribble it all down.

Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.

A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.