She felt as if the mosaic she had been assembling out of life's little shards got dumped to the ground, and there was no way to put it back together.

I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.

You don't want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can't fill up when you're holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water - just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness.

Grace arrived, like the big, loopy stitches with which a grandmotherly stranger might baste your hem temporarily.

Learning to love back is the hardest part of being alive.

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 road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.