Writing was the soul of everything else ... Wanting to be a writer was wanting to be a person.

The world is full of mystery but it must not be choked with secrets: we must talk to one another.

Prayer as focus is not a way of limiting what can be seen; it is a habit of attention brought to bear on all that is.

Silence was the first prayer I learned to trust.

The paradox: there can be no pilgrimage without a destination, but the destination is also not the real point of the endeavor. Not the destination, but the willingness to wander in pursuit characterizes pilgrimage. Willingness: to hear the tales along the way, to make the casual choices of travel, to acquiesce even to boredom. That's pilgrimage -- a mind full of journey.

Writing is so hard. And then, sometimes, it is so bewilderingly easy.

You can’t put much on paper before you betray your secret self, try as you will to keep things civil.