Mary Pipher:

That is our challenge: To cultivate lives of reflection, love, and joy and still somehow manage to do our share for this beautiful broken planet of ours.

Writing to Change the World, p. 242

Mary Pipher:

Writing can be love made visible. In the end, one of the best ways to truly change readers is to love them.

Writing to Change the World, p. 241

Mary Pipher:

The finest thing we can do in life is to grow a soul and then use it in the service of humankind.

Writing to Change the World, p. 241

Mary Pipher:

Our writing is one way in which we express our moral sense and our integrity. Morality is not a delicate consommé; it is a thick and spicy jambong, a concoction of fish, shrimp, squid, chilies, vegetables, and noodles, served in a flavorful dark broth. It is pungent, intriguing, and sustaining.

Writing to Change the World, p. 240

Mary Pipher:

Good storytellers heal the world. The stories that save us are the stories that give us what some Buddhists call a "bigger container." They open us up to new understanding and growth. Bigger container stories expand our circle of caring, and "complexify" the universe rather than simplify it. They encourage us to risk more for the world's sake rather than making us cynical, jaded, and cautious about it.

Writing to Change the World, p. 239-240

Mary Pipher:

Poets write to create beauty, tell the truth, speak for those without voices, comfort the sorrowful, encourage the hopeless, call attention to that which is fragile, and encourage us to be mindful.

Writing to Change the World, p. 233

Mary Pipher:

Poetry has the gossamer quality of a snowflake and the power of a sword.

Writing to Change the World, p. 229

Mary Pipher:

The first step in all writing is observation.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays allow us to struggle on paper with our deepest questions, and then to share that struggle with others.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

Mary Pipher:

Only by facing our own grief fully can we do the work necessary to alleviate the world's grief.

Writing to Change the World, p. 208

Mary Pipher:

The deeper we dive into our own experience, and the more honest and insightful we are in reporting, the more we connect to all other humans.

Writing to Change the World, p. 206

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays connect the events in our personal lives to greater world events.

Writing to Change the World, p. 206

Mary Pipher:

My best advice is to love your audiences. Be present with them. Form a small community in the time you have together. If you love them as neighbors and family members, they will know it, and they will allow you into their hearts. Then you can create moments for them in which transformation is possible.

Writing to Change the World, p. 203

Mary Pipher:

Public speaking is a weird mixture of stress, drudgery, and moments of grace.

Writing to Change the World, p. 197

Mary Pipher:

Success means we have done our best. We have not squandered our gifts or ignored our responsibilities. We have given our time and talents to help others. We have used our freedom to free someone else. Success is not fame or awards; it is having our ideas discussed by other people.

Writing to Change the World, p. 162-163

Mary Pipher:

The truth is, most preaching is to the choir. Choirs produce almost all the important social action in our world. The people most likely to read us are people who think like we do.

Writing to Change the World, p. 154

Bookin' It in 2009

I read more books in 2009 than I have in any year previous. The following 10 titles are the books that impacted me the most in '09, in alphabetical order.

1. Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians by Candace Chellew-Hodge

2. The Children Are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships by Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley

3. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

4. If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland

5. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

6. Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community by Andrew Marin

7. Mocha With Max: Friendly Thoughts & Simple Truths from the Writings of Max Lucado

8. Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics by Tony Campolo

9. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America by Mel White

10. Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher

Mary Pipher:

The best writers enlarge the points of view of their readers. They create overarching metaphors and build bigger frames that allow readers to understand this world more deeply.

Writing to Change the World, p. 142

Mary Pipher:

When we writers rethink conventional wisdom, we are helping our readers rethink it as well.

Writing to Change the World, p. 118

Mary Pipher:

When we are lucky, we enter what the poet Marjorie Saiser calls "cruise control." It is a state of grace, in which our egos have disappeared, the juices are flowing, and we are one with the writing.

Writing to Change the World, p. 116