I'm not a fan of mysteries, so to prepare for this experience of writing a mystery I started reading the most successful ones in the market in 2012. And I realized I cannot write that kind of book. It's too gruesome, too violent, too dark; there's no redemption there.
There was need of a phantastic, indestructible optimism, and one far removed from all sense of reality, in order, for example, to discover in the shameful death of Christ really the highest salvation and the redemption of the world.
It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed.
Jews have suffered persecution from misguided Christians who tortured the Jews for their part in killing Christ. These Christians forgot that Christ died because of the sins of all men.
The true Christian loves his Savior with his whole heart and wants nothing to do with the sin that nailed his Redeemer to the cross.
Infancy is the perpetual Messiah, which comes into the arms of fallen men, and pleads with them to return to paradise.
Villains with a conscience have this sad realization of who they are, and the monster they've become — there's a sense of regret. So at the end of these movies there's a dramatic resonance that really stays with the audience.
I am so glad I found you and didn't kill you" - Mara Jade Skywalker to Luke Skywalker
It is staggering that God should love sinners, yet it is true.
The redemption plot is one of the oldest story shapes.
Part of the reason I wanted to write a novel was that in fiction I could do something that's difficult to do in real life, which is to dwell on the stark details of the experience without really needing to create that narrative of redemption.
I have been doing a lot of romantic movies, so such roles don't excite me much now. I would like to play an out-and-out, really cruel villain once. My character in 'Da Thadiya' had such a streak, but I want a full length villainous role. It is a different kind of excitement.
[...]women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift?
Sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You'd be surprised.
I didn't like '12 Years a Slave' because it was playing to the Spielbergian model of redemption.
Most action is based on redemption and revenge, and that's a formula. Moby Dick was formula. It's how you get to the conclusion that makes it interesting.
My writings are limited to depicting analytically, but also polemically, the horrors of reality. Redemption is the speciality of other authors, male and female.
