We don't naturally want to take responsibility for our lives. We want to give the responsibility to someone else. We blame them when our lives aren't good.

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.

I love writing books - I really do. If I could just quit everything and work on a book every day, I would love that most.

I think understanding your life as a story is a really terrific way of kind of knowing where you are and knowing who you are.

I'm not a pastor; I've never been on staff at a church.

If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict. If you don't have conflict, it can't be a good story.

It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler. The gospel, the very good news, is simple.

Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It's like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.

One of the things I associate with God is a sunrise. How many sunrises have you missed over the years, and God created that?

People are lonely. They want company and your book can provide them company and a little bit of hope. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Sunday morning church service is not an enormous priority; spending time with other believers is.

The most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus.

The reason I like writing a memoir is because it isn't preachy.

Without a positive male role model in your life, it is extremely difficult to become a man who benefits his family and benefits society.

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.

I started 'Storyline' after I'd accomplished all my goals and still wasn't happy. I'd become a 'New York Times' bestselling author, which was my goal from high school, and yet I was less happy after accomplishing my goals than I was before.

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 think it's very hard for us, for Christians, to understand that it's okay to read a book, for instance, on how to manage your time. There's nothing wrong with that.

I think that's the true litmus test for someone who has become closer to Jesus: their heart is more loving, accepting, childlike, less believing that they have all the answers and more believing in Him.

I think, in the grand epic, Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is to be a saint in a story that he is telling.