Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.

Christ-as always, the model-never sat back, crossed his arms, and dismissed the annoying, the troublesome, or the unpromising. He never name-called, never judged, never treated a single person with contempt. Christ talked to everybody, he...

One century’s saint is the next century’s heretic … and one century’s heretic is the next century’s saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.

The Temptations of St. Anthony,” by Donald Barthelme

Stop crying to the ocean, stop crying over me. Stop worrying over nothing, stop worrying over me. So it’s been so long since you said, well I know what I want and what I want’s...

Devil’s Advocate,” in order to fast‐track still more of his many candidates for canonization. I can thus claim to be the only living person to have represented the Devil pro bono.

I know I’ll hold this loss in my heart forever. I know I’ll hold, I’ll hold. I know.

We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to...