Preaching and writing - it's the same. Whether I'm writing to speak or writing to be read in a book, it's the same thing.

To believe is not intellectual assent: "Yes, I believe in Jesus. I will sign my name to the Nicene Creed. I believe it all" - which you could do, [but] it would have no effect on who you were or what you did. It is, rather, to give your heart.

I'm not religious in the sense that I do not subscribe to any particular set of religious dogma. I don't go to church. I don't read the Bible. But I believe that the word "Spirit" with a capital S points to an ultimate reality which I give my heart to.

The Jesus I follow is the peacemaker, is one who says forgive your enemies, who worries about the poor, who worries about the poorest of the poor instead of the richest of the rich.

I don't know how to save my own life, so anything they've found in what I've written that saved theirs - I can't take responsibility for it.

Theology, like fiction, is largely autobiographical.

You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.