My view is that organized religion is a very dangerous tool that's been misused by a lot of people.

Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.

A child blind from birth doesn't even know he's blind until someone tells him. Even then he has only the most academic idea of what blindness is; only the formerly sighted have a real grip on the thing. Ben Hanscom had no sense of being lonely because he had never been anything but. If the condition had been new, or more localized, he might have understood, but loneliness both encompassed his life and overreached it.

Everything's a lot tougher when it's for real. That's when you choke. When it's for real.

There’s always a choice. That’s God’s way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There’s no set of leg-irons on you. But... this is what God wants of you.

Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn't it?

I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.