“Talking with her was like listening to a ballad on a radio station that fades in and out as you drive, sometimes clear and sentimental and tuned perfectly to the passing land, sometimes filled with static, lost, a song played too many times.”

“American fundamentalism’s original sentiments were as radically democratic in theory as they have become repressive in practice, its dream not that of Christian theocracy but of a return to the first century of Christ worship, before there was a thing called Christianity. The “age of miracles,” when church was no more than a word for the great fellowship—the profound friendship—of believers, when Christ’s testament really was new, revelation was unburdened by history, and believers were martyrs or martyrs-to-be, pure and beautiful.”

“I read as easily as I breathe.”

“. . . private group prayers were the modern equivalent of a backroom cigar.”

“That's religion in America, under constant revision.”

“Sometimes at night, when I wake up real late, I can hear my dad talking to God. He whispers, but I still hear him.I even hear him crying sometimes, when God says something sad.”

“I know it'll change, and I know that is has changed. But I still think it's a very satisfying medium, to put together a collection of songs and let them all live together, and hopefully talk to each other and hopefully make some sense out of why theyr're there. Just like we do.”