A new year can begin only because the old year ends.

Behind the violence of the birthing of galaxies and stars and planets came a quiet and tender melody, a gentle love song. All the raging of creation, the continuing hydrogen explosions on the countless suns, the heaving of planetary bodies, all was enfolded in a patient, waiting love.

With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.

A book comes and says, 'Write me.

I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you.