“The way we love people we disagree with is the best evidence of what we really believe.”

Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It’s about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us.

God doesn’t break things so He can fix them; He fixes broken things so He can use them.

What distracts us will begin to define us. We don’t need to swing at every pitch.

Grace works that way. It’s a kind word from a gentle person with an impossible prayer. It’s a force sometimes transmitted best hand to hand in a dark place.

I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.

Living a life of following Christ means constant interruptions.

Whatever you’re aiming for, God’s better.

What I’ve learned the more time I’ve spent following Jesus is that God delights in answering our impossible prayers.

Cynicism is fear posing as confidence; joy is hope let off the leash.

Small streams don’t plan to be mighty rivers. We just move in a direction; God decides what He’ll have us become.

The world will figure out what we really believe, by watching what we actually do.

We keep asking for answers; God keeps sending us people.

I used to think God wouldn’t talk to me, but now I know I’m just selective with what I choose to hear.

Grace means we don’t need to airbrush our lives to make them look like they’re working.

We get to be God’s plan for the whole world by pointing people toward Him.

There’s a lot to be concerned about; there’s more to be hopeful for.

There is currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency. You can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.

Working on The West Wing was similar in many ways to my experience on M*A*S*H, because you had people willing to work late at night to get it just right.

And I think belief is one of those things that comes to people in their own way. And just because I believe in something doesn’t mean I think that you should.

It was repugnant, but it was the only way to communicate.

The younger generation is vibrant with a new psychology; the new spirit is awake in the masses . . . Each generation . . . will have its creed.

I haven’t encouraged [Julia Marie Pacino] or discouraged her. I let her go her own way.

The true writer has nothing to say. What counts is the way he says it.

There is a lightening in our bones and wildfire in our spirits and we will find a way despite it all to survive and thrive.