God is not attracted to mountaintops or church steeples. God is drawn to suffering, and the dark places it surfaces, which is why sharing pain freely feels very much like love, and may be the same thing. (207)

Maybe the trying is the thing. Maybe it doesn't get better than that. Maybe you never quite get there. And maybe that's okay.

I figured anybody who talked about church as much as she did was using it a little like cocaine anyhow.

People blush when one of their core truths is revealed.

The good guys had to operate on a higher level than the killers--just for society to keep track of who was who.

But that's the hardest part of healing.' What?' Realizing there's no one to hate.

The roots of any evil deed can be traced to the perpetrator's refusal to experience pain.