I thought some of the stories were neat; I liked some of the liturgy and some of the songs. If you're a writer you have some inclination to pay attention. I didn't just tune it out and think about baseball. So, it had an effect on me.

O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.

It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound.

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

Good habits are worth being fanatical about.

The lie, of course, is more interesting.

Adolescence-is it the first time in life we discover that we have something terrible to hide from those who love us?