J. Ryan

“Teaching remains a heroic act to me, and teachers live a necessary and all-important life. We are killing their spirit with unnecessary pressure and expectation that seem forced and destructive to me. Long ago I was one of them. I still regret I was forced to leave them. My entire body of work is because of men and women like them.”
― Pat Conroy, A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life

“And the strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity.”
― Kevin Belmonte, A Year with G. K. Chesterton: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonder

“In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician. And this pointed a profound emotion always present and sub-conscious; that this world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.”
― Kevin Belmonte, A Year with G. K. Chesterton: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonder

“One of the ways that Christianity can contribute to literary criticism and hermeneutics is by emphasizing its specific distinctives: connectedness, hope, and purposeful meaning.”
― Gene C. Fant Jr., God as Author: A Biblical Approach to Narrative