I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirsted for would exist.

I was the angriest daughter on earth, and also, one of the most devoted.

I realized I was going to get through this disappointing service, and anyway, you have to be somewhere: better here, where I have heard truth spoken so often, than, say, at the DMV, or home alone, orbiting my own mind. And it's good to be out where others can see you, so you can't be your ghastly spoiled self. It forces you to act slightly more elegantly, and this improves your thoughts, and thereby the world.

Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.

I've written six novels and four pieces of nonfiction, so I don't really have a genre these days.

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 think this is how we are supposed to be in the world-present and in awe.