Waiting is the great vocation of the dispossessed.

Catholic writer' seems like you have an agenda of evangelization, as if you were somehow influenced in your choice of perspective by dogma or canon law. That has nothing to do with me. I don't have a lot in common with other 'Catholic' writers.

Feminism is very much a part of a lot of my student's lives, but they're not going to march about it or take a public political stance. And I think more and more young women are claiming that they're not feminists - even though they are.

If the moral good of fiction stems mainly from a habit of mind it inculcates in the reader, styles are neither good nor bad, and to describe some fictional enterprises as false is pointless.

A lot happens at 50, the best thing being that you just don't care anymore. At 40, you still care. At 30, you care way too much - and your twenties are quite frankly a nightmare. Bring on 60, I say: just imagine the joy of having grandchildren.

I love writing Christmas music. It's some of the easiest songs to write... You draw from your own memories - it's kind of a wellspring of inspiration, in a way. With other songs, you know, you spend six months just trying to figure out what to write about.

I'm always content. I hold much more store in contentment than happiness.

I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I'm singing. It comes down to being believable. You don't have to be likeable; generally, though, I think I am.