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

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?

Getting into a new relationship is like pouring Miracle-Gro on your character defects.

Her purse was a weight, ballast; it tethered her to the earth as her mind floated away.

Grace means you're in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.

If you fixate on the big picture, the whole shebang, the overview, you miss the stitching.