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I think my inner voices are pretty good when it comes to warning of trouble. The problem is, I don’t always listen to them.

War was senseless. And yet war came creeping steadily closer.

We got the way we are, Jeanie, because life on Earth is one long fight for limited resources. Our bloody-mindedness all started out as food battles, three billion years ago.

You just can’t tell. Brains won’t correlate with appearance.

And there you had it. Most people hate to learn that they are wrong. Not McAndrew. When he’s proved wrong, he’s ecstatic. It means he’s learned something new, and that’s his main reason for existence.

They saw every event through the distorting lens of their own paranoia.

He was still young enough to hate looking like a fool more than anything in the world.

Push yourself beyond when you think you are done with what you have to say. […] It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.

Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace. Our approach to the Christian life is as absurd as the enthusiastic young man who had just received his plumber’s license and was taken to see Niagara Falls. He studied it for a minute and then said, "I think I can fix this."

Anything we fully do is an alone journey. […] You are alone when you write a book. Accept that and take in any love and support that is given to you, but don't have expectations of how it is supposed to be.

Just write. Just write. Just write. [...]

When we are in the heart of writing it doesn't matter where we are. We can write anyplace.

Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak. Then come back.

Don't worry. You won't have lost time. Your energy will be more direct and less wasted.