“We do learn and develop when we are exposed to those who are greater than we are. Perhaps this is the chief way we mature.”

“If we accept that we have at least an iota of free will, we cannot throw it back the moment things go wrong. Like a human parent, God will help us when we ask for help, but in a way that will make us more mature, more real, not in a way that will diminish us.”

“Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learned not to trust.”

“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”

“We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.”

“We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually.”

“We, and I think I'm speaking for many writers, don't know what it is that sometimes comes to make our books alive. All we can do is write dutifully and day after day, every day, giving our work the very best of what we are capable. I don't that we can consciously put the magic in; it doesn't work that way. When the magic comes, it's a gift.”