It is hard to stay focused with so much swirling around me. God is distracting. He never stops talking, and I can never stop listening. There is a reason we sleep.

Self-loathing and self-worship can easily be the same thing. You hate the small sack of fluids and resentments that you are, and you would go to any length, and betray anything and anyone, to preserve it.

Do not fear the shadowy places. You will never be the first one there. Another went ahead and down until He came out the other side.

Living is the same thing as dying. Living well is the same thing as dying for others.

When you depart from standard usage, it should be deliberate and not an accidental lapse. Like a poet who breaks the rules of poetry for creative effect, this only works when you know and respect the rule you are breaking. If you have never heard of the rules you are breaking, you have no right to do so, and you are likely to come off like a buffoon or a barbarian. Breaking rules, using slang and archaic language can be effective, but it is just as likely to give you an audience busy with wincing.

The truth is that a life well lived is always lived on a rising scale of difficulty.

Stories are like catechisms, but they're catechisms for your impulses, they're catechisms with flesh on.