Prayer is talking to something or anything with which we seek union, even if we are bitter or insane or broken. (In fact, these are probably the best possible conditions under which to pray.) Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up.

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

Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting.

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.

I never had a particularly strong craving to procreate, except for earlier fantasies of wanting to be Marmee in Little Women.

We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. The writer's job is to turn the unspeakable into words - not just into any words, but if we can, into rhythm and blues.

I've known for years that resentments don't hurt the person we resent, but they do hurt us.