Storytelling is the greatest activity of any culture. Storytelling is how you build a family, how you pass along identity.

I think that television lately has been extremely dark and, in some ways, cynical but I also think that people who are writing those shows probably feel exactly as I do - that sometimes the darkness of a story can highlight the light in a story. There's a lot of cynical stuff but I think it may be even more in movies now where you see so many movies about cynical and corrupted characters. That's the state of many movies right now but movies, television, all of culture, there's always going to be a battle between the stories that are cynical and stories that are hopeful.

Storytelling is the greatest activity of any culture. Storytelling is how you build a family, how you pass along identity.

I believe that God is carrying us whether we know it or not and is always present. I've always wanted my life and my work to be something that was letting my soul participate with the souls of others. I have really felt that process (with) this picture.

I believe that God is carrying us whether we know it or not and is always present. I love what C.S. Lewis said - "You don't have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body."

I majored in religion for my entire undergraduate career at Duke University and then I went to seminary for a year unsure whether or not I really had the call to be a minister. I spoke with a pastor of my home church and told him I was going to seminary. He said "Do you feel the call to be a minister?" and I said "Honestly, I don't. I know it's the greatest call you could have but I'm not feeling that call myself. He said "Well, you know, you're wrong. It's not the greatest call. The greatest call is whatever calling God has for you."

I love writing. I've always been drawn to that and felt a particular joy in it - like the phrase in Chariots of Fire: "God made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure." God gave me a love of writing and (I knew) to do it I would feel God's pleasure.