I tell my students you have an absolute right to write about people you know and love. You do. But the kicker is you have a responsibility to make the characters large enough that you will not have sinned against them.

People don't do right because of the fear of God or love of him. You do right because the world doesn't make sense if you don't.

And while it is true that I got the best woman in the world, I don't think love saves you.

I told her, Don't touch me that way. Don't come at me with that sour-cream smile. Come at me as if I were worth your life - the life we make together. Take me like a turtle whose shell must be cracked, whose heart is ice, who needs your heat. Love me like a warrior, sweat up to your earlobes and all your hope between your teeth. Love me so I know I am at least as important as anything you have ever wanted.

That was what gospel was meant to do - make you hate and love yourself at the same time, make you ashamed and glorified.

Writing is the only way I know to demand justice from an uncaring universe.

Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different..." from Two or Three Things i Know For Sure