Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.

There's always hope... even when there isn't faith. And sometimes, without hope or faith, there must be charity.

And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.

Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.

In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.

Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they're telling the truth, there's always something hidden behind their words.

So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down…A real god doesn’t care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.