Quote collection
297 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Without the Christian explanation of original sin, the seemingly silly story of Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no explanation of conflict. At all."
"Good stories must travel through conflict. And in epic stories, the conflict must become unbearable."
"How many people have damaged their own lives by mistaking enablement for grace?"
"I don't find anyone more noble than Jesus."
"Robert McKee says humans naturally seek comfort and stability. Without an inciting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won’t enter into a story. They have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon. A ring has to be purchased. A home has to be sold. The character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and the fear, otherwise the story will never happen."
"Everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they're shy."
"When we think too much about the opinions of others, we are letting them edit a book God has written."
"But the people who took the bus didn't experience the city as we experienced the city. The pain made the city more beautiful. The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way."
"Every human being is searching for a deep sense of meaning, and yet we're all chasing success. We've confused one for the other."
"If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict. If you don't have conflict, it can't be a good story."
"I'm not a pastor; I've never been on staff at a church."
"Christians might say that you can't live a more meaningful life without Jesus. Well, that's absolutely not true. You can. You can enjoy a sunrise whether you know Jesus or not."
"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."
"As a human, I am flawed in that it is difficult for me to consider others before myself. It feels like I have to fight against this force, this current within me that, more often than not, wants to avoid serious issues and please myself, buy things for myself, feed myself, entertain myself, and all of that."
"I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea and here's all the reasons that it's right.' It doesn't make for very compelling reading."
"I can't do it. It would be like, say, trying to fall in love with somebody, or trying to convince yourself that your favorite food is pancakes. You don't decide those things, they just happen to you. If God is real, He needs to happen to me."
"There are things you cannot understand, and you must learn to live with this. Not only must you learn to live with this, you must learn to enjoy this."
"I used love like money, but love doesn't work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose. When the church does not love it's enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more."
"Do I still think there will be a day when all the wrongs are made right, when our souls find the completion they are looking for? I do. But when all things are made right, it won’t be because of some preacher or snake-oil salesman or politician or writer making promises in his book. I think, instead, this will be done by Jesus. And it will be at a wedding. And there will be a feast."
"It was a haunting feeling, the sort of sensation you get when you wonder whether you are two people, the other of which does things you can't explain, bad and terrible things."