Each one of us has to be what he or she is.

You can't teach people to write well. Writing well is something God lets you do or declines to let you do.

And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.

I am of course a skeptic about the divinity of Christ and a scorner of the notion that there is a God who cares about how we are or what we do. ... Religious skeptics often become very bitter towards the end, as did Mark Twain. ... I know why I will become bitter. I will finally realize that I have had it right all along: that I will not see God, that there is no heaven or Judgement Day.

People like to feel entitled, whether they're actually entitled or not.

Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.

... uncritical love is the only real treasure.