I think, in the grand epic, Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is to be a saint in a story that he is telling.

I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love and approval.

A story is based on what people think is important, so when we live a story, we are telling people around us what we think is important.

...she wanted God to make sense. He doesn't. He will make no more sense to me than I will make sense to an ant.

Truth grew in my mind like a fungus, and though I tried to sleep it out, there was no resisting the epiphanies.

It was a haunting feeling, the sort of sensation you get when you wonder whether you are two people, the other of which does things you can't explain, bad and terrible things.

I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.