“I'm a fiction writer not by choice, but by necessity. It's the only way I can say what I want without having to admit it's the truth.”

“I want to die in my own way. It's my illness, my death, my choice. This is what saying yes means.”

“They say 'truth is stranger than fiction,' but I like to say fiction is truth - only stranger.”

“I don't really care what people say about me. I'm fine with lies and rumors. It's the truth I don't want being told.”

“The chief means of resisting manipulation is humility – knowing who we really are and facing it. You can only serve by love. You can only love by choice. True love cannot be the result of decree, force or manipulation. Jesus always kept his strength to make loving choices. He calls us to make loving choices necessary to be the servant of all." "Humility permits me to own my feelings – and to admit them. Now I'm free to say, ‘I'm angry’. I'm free to admit what I am reacting to. I am free to ask if anger is what the person wanted to produce in me, and to ask for help in changing if my reaction is inappropriate.”

“What is it? A prize or something?No. It's not a prize and I'm not a prize. But it's mine. It belongs to me and I can only give it away once, and I want to be so sure when it happens. I don't want to say that the first time for me was bad or it didn't mean a thing.”