To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be a part of a solution, to understand a little about life and to pass this on.

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.

After a while the middle-aged person who lives in her head begins to talk to her soul, the kid.

Prayer means that, in some unique way, we believe we're invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.

I kept asking God for help, and after a while I realized something -- that Josh was not enjoying this either. He was just trying to take care of himself, and I made the radical decision to let him off the hook.

There is ecstasy in paying attention.

I spend most of my time alone, because I so value and thrive in the quiet. Heaven.