God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.

The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.

Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.

But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.