The best essays come from the moment in which people really need to work something out. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
It is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The great truth that is too often forgotten is that it is in the nature of people to do good to one… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
It seems to me some people just go around lookin' to get their faith unsettled. That has been the fashion for the… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I have always liked the phrase "nursing a grudge " because many people are tender of their resentments as of the thing… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Cultures cherish artists because they are people who can say, Look at that. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
One of the things about writing fiction is that you create people that you feel, more or less, as though you know. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
To think that only faultless people are worthwhile seems like an incredible exclusion of almost everything of deep value in the human… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I think I am like most people in letting myself worry about things that didn't matter. Concepts like quotidian and humdrum prevented… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I'm a great admirer of secularism. At its best, I think it's one of the best things that we have. I don't… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
These people who can see right through you never quite do you justice, because they never give you credit for the effort… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The accessibility and effective immortality of actual information is a magnificent phenomenon, a beautiful extension of human consciousness. It is too bad… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
It seems to me people tend to forget that we are to love our enemies, not to satisfy some standard of righteousness… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I don't think I would worry about an oversaturation of information if it was indeed information. It is the slovenly, hasty traffic… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
More generally, people who lived in a period when maternal, infant and childhood mortality were still high would have been tougher than… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
People who feel any sort of regret where you are concerned will suppose you are angry, and they will see anger in… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
A sermon is a valuable thing now and so impressive when you do hear a good one - and there is a… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I'm really disturbed by the degree to which I don't hear people saying, "Are we leaving the world better than we found… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
John Calvin's theology emphasizes the sanctity of conscience, the sanctity of companionate marriage, and the obligation of those in power to attend… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I really don't know why people have so much trouble now writing about religious faith. It is true that clichés can override… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The idea that the universe itself is physically structured around hierarchy was sort of an integration of earlier science and theology that… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
She conceived of life as a road down which one traveled, an easy enough road through a broad country, and that one's… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
People don't acknowledge loneliness in themselves, and don't appreciate its benefits, the reflection and attentiveness that come with it, the deepened acquaintance… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Somebody who had read Lila asked me, ‘Why do you write about the problem of loneliness?’ I said: ‘It’s not a problem.… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
There are worries that seem to me sustained by the love of worry. For example, that people are reading from screens, or… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I am delighted if people find that kind of sustenance in novels, but perhaps it's because they don't read the Scripture that… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The attention of the congregation is a major part of the attention that the pastor gives to his or her utterance. It's… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The twinkling of an eye. That is the most wonderful expression. I've thought from time to time it was the best thing… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I think to the degree writers are serious, there is a greater tendency for them to write to themselves, because they're trying… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
That's the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The loss of seriousness seems to me to be, in effect, a loss of hope. I think that the thing that made… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
When the Reformation became established, one of the things that was a question between Catholicism and the Reformation traditions was whether there… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
The model for our early bankruptcy laws was Deuteronomy, the idea that, under certain circumstances - in Deuteronomy, it is simply the… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
One of the things that is wonderful about hymns is that they are a sort of universally shared poetry, at least among… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
One of the things that is nice about these old pastors - they were young at the time - who went into… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Protestantism, of course, is much more explicitly divided into different traditions - the Pentecostals, the Anglicans. But there is the main tradition… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“But I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
For our purposes as human beings, the mind is the center of everything. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“I think sometimes there might be an advantage in making people aware how worn and stale these old transgressions are. It might take some… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
My Calvinism persuades me that we are open to God, in the sense that we are not delimited, not organisms with fixed attributes in… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father, or his… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“Every writer I know, when asked how to become a writer, responds with one word:Read.” — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“Faith for her was habit and family loyalty, a reverence for the Bible which was also literary, admiration for her mother and father. And… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’ There are pleasures to be found where you… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
I sometimes am discouraged by what seems to be a sort of conventional disparagement of humankind. I think often people feel that they are… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
Now that I look back, it seems to me that in all that deep darkness a miracle was preparing. So I am right to… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“My grandfather once told her if you couldn't read with cold feet, there wouldn't be a literate soul in the state of Maine.” — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
“Cranky old Leviticus gave us—gave Christ—not only “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” but also the rather forgotten “Thou shalt love the stranger… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share
