Iwas not a reader at all, not until I discovered ‘The Hobbit.’ That changed my life. It gave me the courage to read. It led me to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series. And once I’d read that, I knew I could read anything because I had just read thousands of pages.
My grandfather, a devout Christian, had the gift of healing.
People are looking for inspiration, and my books are sometimes the vehicles of what people are looking for.
Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.
So much of young adult literature has turned dark, almost pathological. It’s almost as if there is a race to see who can be the most dysfunctional.
The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it’s kind of the same as being president of the United States – it’s not gonna happen.
The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.
People are like books, unknown until they are opened.
When we hate someone we make them more powerfull than they are.
To forgive is to unlock the cage of another’s folly to set ourselves free.
But more than brave, you have love. And love is brave.
Broken vows are like broken mirrors. They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at fractured images of themselves.
At one time in my career, Barnes and Noble bookstores categorized my books as religious fiction.
Don’t try to write what other people are writing – write what is true to you.
I am facing the most difficult thing of my life, my own greatest failure.
Some people were born to work for others. Not in a mindless, servile-way – rather they simply work better in a set regimen of daily tasks and functions. Others were born of the entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy the demands of self-determination and the roll of the dice.
I believe that we were meant to live as social creatures, to reach out and bless each other’s lives.
I have Tourettes syndrome.
I find myself seeking out the commonalities of our different religious experiences with hopes of encouraging, through my writings, the most hopeful, loving and redemptive qualities in all of us.
The truest indication of gratitude is to return what you are grateful for.