“Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight — how to get from shore to food and back again.”

“The more you can escape from how horrible things really are, the less it's going to bother you… and then, the worse things get.”

“Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful than even the most elaborate lie.”

“I don’t think Father Hugo is any more mistaken than the most learned theologian and he might be closer to the truth. Jacob, I don’t think anyone knows Who’s in charge.”

“You can really bring so much more to rock'n'roll. Rock'n'roll is the most accepting, is the most fertile ground for creating hybrid forms of music and hybrid forms of show, if you draw from many, many different wells. It's just unfortunate so many rock'n'roll stars only bother to learn how to play like Led Zeppelin and/or the Rolling Stones and that's what you get, disc after disc and show after show.”

“Get out of the boat. Face your fears. Fail. Learn. Adjust. Try again. And watch God do more than you can imagine.”

“The secular state is the guarantee of religious pluralism. This apparent paradox, again, is the simplest and most elegant of political truths.”

“That’s how it goes within a family. You think you know each other so well, and so you don’t bother hardly getting to know each other at all.”

“How do you get off a non-stop flight?”

“Pleasant, the eagle on the shore of the sea when it flows;
Also pleasant, sea-gulls playing.
Pleasant, a horse with gold-enamelled trappings;
Also pleasant to be honest in a breach.”