"We cannot grasp the meaning of the story of Jesus until we begin to see that it is in fact the climactic episode of the great story of the Bible, the chronicle of God's work in human history. When his good creation was fouled by human rebellion, God immediately set out on a salvage mission. He had created…

“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work…

In 2002, on Christmas Day, Charlie Rose sat down to interview Martin Scorsese and Daniel Day Lewis about their recent film, Gangs of New York. The whole interview is fantastic, but around the 14 minute mark, something really interesting happens. Charlie begins a line of questioning about Day Lewis' 5-year hiatus from acting and subsequent re-entry into the craft.

Lewis is a bit reluctant at first to the obvious question for a recluse.…