"

But you are not your bank account, or your ambition. You're not the cold clay lump you leave behind when you die. You're not your collection of walkin...more

"

It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life.

"

grace is a small white butterfly, and life is a semi trailer careening up 101.

"

Some people have a thick skin and you don't. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this wo...more

"

This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. It goes down into th...more

"

...most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you.

"

I stared at the little white agates in my hand, delicate as moon drops. The mystery of God's love as I understand it is that God loves the man who was...more

"

It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of w...more

"

Everyone is flailing through this life without an owner's manual, with whatever modicum of grace and good humor we can manage.

"

There are really places in your heart that you don't know exist until you love a child.

"

I love readings and my readers, but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright, and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud, a...more

"

We must not inflict life on children who will be resented we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

"

Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written, or you didn't go swimming in those warm...more

"

My parents, and librarians along the way, taught me about the space between words; about the margins, where so many juicy moments of life and spirit a...more

"

How alive am I willing to be?