"I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment."
"Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace."
"Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky."
"To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know."
"I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book."
"God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves."