If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.

I knew that the moment I started worrying about whether or not I was good enough for the job, I wouldn't be able to do it.

This wasn't the first time that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved.

Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.

If we don't pray according to the needs of the heart, we repress our deepest longings. Our prayers may not be rational, and we may be quite aware of that, but if we repress our needs, then those unsaid prayers will fester.

Women must be very gentle with men as they, as well as women, seek to regain the lost wholeness for which they were destined.

We are suspicious of grace. We are afraid of the very lavishness of the gift.