I like to say that I'm tracing the intersection between big ideas and human experience, between theology and real life.

Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think it's about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.

Voters go into the ballot box with big ideas in their mind: leadership, change, experience, hope.

Depression can kill you. It can also be a spiritually enriching experience. It's really an important part of my theology now and my spirituality that life is not perfect, and I grew up wanting it to be and thinking that if it wasn't, I could make it that way, and I had to acknowledge that I had all kinds of flaws and sadnesses and problems.

Big ideas we tend to like are the ones that seem impossible or crazy.

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life.