I had some friends commenting me books, but mostly it was people I didn't know. But they're fans. They're fans of the books, so they have a working knowledge of how I write, and they know what they like and what they don't like. I'm really grateful for their feedback.

Sometimes the story we're telling the world isn't half as endearing as the one that lives inside us.

Everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they're shy.

I love to give to charity, but I don't want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace.

There's a genius part of you that wants to create. That part of you wants to talk to God. Get out of the way.

Somehow I had come to believe that because a person is in need, they are candidates for sympathy, not just charity. It was not that I wanted to buy her groceries, the government was already doing that. I wanted to buy her dignity. And yet, by judging her, I was the one taking her dignity away.

I can't do it. It would be like, say, trying to fall in love with somebody, or trying to convince yourself that your favorite food is pancakes. You don't decide those things, they just happen to you. If God is real, He needs to happen to me.