You can't always win arguments as a writer, but you have to just go ahead and say, well, I'm doing it that way anyway.

You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.

What we do as a society is seek simple answers.

Pain is a gift. Humanity, without pain, would know neither fear nor pity. Without fear, there could be no humility, and every man would be a monster. The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption.

We can approach belief from an intellectual path, but in the end, God must be taken on faith. Proofs are for things of this world, things in time and of time, not beyond time.

...I felt fear enter the halls of my mind, but I didn't give it the keys to every room.

I'm alive but I have no life. I'm alive but also dead. I'm dead and alive.