Poverty made me feel weak, as if I were coming down with an awful, debilitating, communicable disease - the disease of being without money. Instead of going to the hospital, you went to the poor farm. The difference was, you never got well at the poor farm.

There was a strange kind of comfort in misunderstandings and differences that were old enough to have lost their teeth.

Some people say that suicide is a sin, but I have never believed that. I say it's God's way of calling certain folks home early. It's much nicer than an awful accident, where the rest of us are left wondering if the person really wanted to go.

Chemistry's a tricky thing, and if I'm not feeling it, I'm not gonna pretend.

Not everything in church is truth ... And not all truth turns up in church.

For my money, there are no more fascinating, hard-working, vulnerable creatures on earth than writers. Every day, they lay their souls out there for public approval or rejection.

Another chapter closes before it has the chance to begin