Ralph Waldo Emerson:

'Tis curious that we only believe as deep as we live.

Beauty

Ricky Martin:

It took me a long time to really believe that what people think of me is not my business, that it has nothing to do with me.

Me, p. 275

Frank Schaeffer:

No matter how bad Pat Robertson's public relations judgment was in blurting out his belief that the Haitians were to blame for their own destruction, Robertson's outrageous statements are symptomatic of the tendency -- in fact, the necessity -- for all religious extremists to demonize The Other.  They must blame the victim since to do otherwise would be to blame their version of God for such tragic events.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 72

Andre Gide:

Everything that needs to be said has already been said.  But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.

Annie Dillard:

I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place.

The Writing Life, p. 19

Austin Kleon:

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere.  All creative work builds on what came before.  Nothing is completely original.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 7

Jennifer Wright Knust:

One cannot and should not expect easy answers from the Bible, a lesson that Americans, at least, should have learned a century ago.

Unprotected Texts, p. 11

John Shore:

... showing the kind of honesty and integrity it takes to come out sets a great and encouraging example to others. It sends a very positive message to everyone that they, too, should be, and can be, brave about being who they are. That’s such an [sic] vital message to send. It’s what makes life work: we all get our strength from the strength, goodness, and bravery of others.

"61, gay, and closeted: is it too late for him?"

Ricky Martin:

Today, I understand that I can't expect everybody to love me, and as silly as it may sound, it took me a long time to absorb and understand that.

Me, p. 274

Frank Schaeffer:

Since the 1970s the American culture wars have revolved around a fear of Sex and women no less insane and destructive than any horror story to come out of Afghanistan.  The issues of gay rights, abortion, premarital sex, virginity, abstinence, and the "God-given role" of women (make babies, love Jesus, and shut up) have dominated our political/social debates.  Why?  Because sexual politics (American style) illustrates how deranged societies become when ideas about Sex are based on literal interpretations of the biblical "account" of the "facts" of existence.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 50

Jonathan Safran Foer:

You write to please yourself, you write to move yourself, to engage yourself in the asking of questions that are important to you.

"The Foer questions: Literary wunderkind turns 35"

Annie Dillard:

People who read are not too lazy to flip on the television; they prefer books.

The Writing Life, p. 19

Austin Kleon:

It's one of my theories that when people give you advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 1

Jennifer Wright Knust:

The only way that the Bible can be regarded as straightforward and simple is if no one bothers to read it.  As I had already gathered as a child, the Bible is not only contradictory but complex.  Biblical books take sides, they disagree with one another, they intentionally change earlier teachings, and they make irreconcilable claims about human life and the nature of God.

Unprotected Texts, p. 10

John Shore:

The idea of a God who would condemn all non-Christians and/or homosexuals to hell forever is logically, diametrically opposed to the idea of a God who loves mankind.  It would mean that God himself is not obeying the very law about which God said there is none greater.

Unfair, p. 38

Ricky Martin:

The anger I feel when I read about hate crimes and a lack of tolerance was also a manifestation of the anger I felt toward my own history: In a way, my difficulty to accept myself also comes from my own fear of such hate crimes, and how certain people are intolerant and simply incapable of accepting anything different from them.

Me, p. 266

Frank Schaeffer:

I believe that the strange contradictory activities of circling the wagons and looking inward while lashing outward at Sinners and trying to legislate against their "immorality"  happened because Evangelicals, along with other religious conservatives, lost the culture wars.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 98

Susan Cain:

Instead of worrying that I'm too introverted, I now worry that our culture is not introverted enough.

"Secrets of a super successful introvert"

Annie Dillard:

The people who read are the people who like literature, after all, whatever that might be.  They like, or require, what books alone have.  If they want to see films that evening, they will find films.  If they do not like to read, they will not.

The Writing Life, p. 19

Jane Lynch:

I wanted to be a working actor so badly.  I wanted to belong and feel like I was valued and seen.  Well, now I am a working actor, and I guarantee you it's not because I suffered or worried over it.  As I look back, the road to where I am today has been a series of happy accidents I was either smart or stupid enough to take advantage of.

Happy Accidents, p. 1

Unknown:

Equality is not when the female Einstein gets promoted to Assistant Professor, but when female mediocrities can climb as quickly as male mediocrities.

As quoted in Sarah Schulman's Ties That Bind, p. 50

John Shore:

If the Bible were perfectly clear on where God stands on gays and hell, the question of homosexuality wouldn't be dividing Christendom in two, and no Christians would take seriously Rob Bell's book, Love Wins.  But it is.  And they/we are.

Unfair, p. 37

Ricky Martin:

If I don't love myself and if I hide and deny my own self, how can I expect other people to love me for who I really am?

Me, p. 256

Frank Schaeffer:

I did know that God and I were inextricably entangled, and I still know that, no matter what the fifty-eight-year-old version of me says that I believe or don't believe on my agnostic days.  And I still know that God will "lead me" in ways that I'll understand only in Heaven, no matter what I say to the contrary, even when I'm in an atheist frame of mind or when I hold forth to other enlightened people (at least "enlightened" in our own minds) speaking in an we're-all-too-smart-to-take-anything-at-face-value progressive code that presumes that anyone who disagrees is a backward rube.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 9

Susan Cain:

The advice sounds unconventional, but scientists are beginning to recognize that solitude is a catalyst for expert performance.  When you're alone, explains K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, a research psychologist who studies excellence, you can make headway on the tasks that are most challenging to you personally.  "If you want to improve what you're doing," Ericsson told me, "you have to be the one who generates the move.  But in a group, you're the one generating the move only a small percentage of the time."

"Secrets of a super successful introvert"

Annie Dillard:

Sometimes part of a book simply gets up and walks away.  The writer cannot force it back in place.  It wanders off to die.

The Writing Life, p. 16

Jane Lynch:

I thought I had to have a plan, a strategy.  Turns out I just had to be ready and willing to take chances, look at what's right in front of me, and put my heart into everything I do.

Happy Accidents, p. 1

Sarah Schulman:

Resistance gets falsely pegged as the inappropriate behavior because it results in discomfort for the perpetrator.

Ties That Bind, p. 9-10

John Shore:

That's one of its great miracles: in so many ways, and about so many things, the Bible insists that we arrive at our own conclusions.

Unfair, p. 37

Ricky Martin:

I had to understand that in the world there are people who are going to love you for who you are, and those who will want you to be exactly like them; and this simple realization hit me hard.

Me, p. 256