When I got sober, I thought giving up was saying goodbye to all the fun and all the sparkle, and it turned out to be just the opposite. That's when the sparkle started for me.

Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild.

I find a great deal of comfort and care in my faith and prayer. I'd sooner do without air than prayer.

I don't think I look like the pope's favorite Catholic - at least not under close scrutiny.

A pool game mixes ritual with geometry.

Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident. Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver, the bat girl in Yankee Stadium. That’s a more fruitful way to be.

The truth is when I went to graduate school I would've said I was among the least talented of the students, I was certainly the least smart, or less educated. But I worked very hard.