She had awakened something in him that had slumbered far too long. Not only did he feel passion, he felt the return of hope.

I loved my parents... but that can never change the fact that my father's violence ruined my childhood.

It did not look like the work of God, but it might have represented the handicraft of a God with a joyous sense of humor, a dancing God who loved mischief as much as prayer, and playfulness as much as mischief.

I would always be a better hater of things and institutions than a lover of them.

I prayed hard and only gradually became aware that this fierce praying was a way of finding prologue and entrance into my own writing. This came as both astonishment and relief. When I thought God had abandoned me, I discovered that He had simply given me a different voice to praise the inexhaustible beauty of the made world.

Like everything else, love's not worth much without some action to back it up.

Laughter is the only strategy that has ever worked at all for me when my world is falling apart.