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

One of the things I associate with God is a sunrise. How many sunrises have you missed over the years, and God created that?

Christians might say that you can't live a more meaningful life without Jesus. Well, that's absolutely not true. You can. You can enjoy a sunrise whether you know Jesus or not.

I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea and here's all the reasons that it's right.' It doesn't make for very compelling reading.

In an age in which we can project an image and score that image based on immediate Facebook and Twitter feedback, thus making a video game of life and a false-reality composed of lies, what gets lost is a joyful obsession with the work we create from the purest of motives, a sheer joy in the act of creation itself that causes us to lose ourselves in something else, and in a way die to ourselves over the absolute love of a thing we are breathing into life.

Flattery has a short battery life, but reminding people they are amazing and precious and wanted and works of art can truly change their lives.

Sunday morning church service is not an enormous priority; spending time with other believers is.