Christian spirituality was not a children's story. It wasn't cute or neat. It was mystical and odd and clean, and it was reaching into dirty. There was wonder in it and enchantment.

Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It's like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.

For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained.

You never question the truth of something until you have to explain it to a skeptic.

We don't think of our flaws as the glue that binds us to the people we love, but they are. Grace only sticks to your imperfections.

I think writers can get a little melodramatic sometimes about their work, and it helps me not to do that, to just say, "Well, this is how I make a living, and I need to become a very good craftsman."

Half the time I pick up a book, that's what I'm trying to get.