“If you take two steps towards God,' he used to tell me, 'God runs to you!”

“We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not: but immediately we arise we find He is there.”

“We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us.”

“Show me proof there is a God, you say. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and tell me how there could not be s God!”

“I can't tell you why God made you the way you are any more than I can tell you why he's planted a carcinoma in my stomach to make me die painfully while other men die peacefully in their sleep. The cogs of creation seem to slip all the time. Babies are born with two heads, mothers of families run crazy with carving knives, men die in plague, famine and thunderstorms. Why? Only God knows.”

“I used to tell your mother she looked like Sophia Lauren." He looks at me, frowning, and then it registers. "Oh God, some guy's using that line on you, isn't he?""Not just 'some guy'." I tell him. "The guy.”