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Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Donald Miller Quotes

I’m not a pastor; I’ve never been on staff at a church.

– Donald Miller

Sunday morning church service is not an enormous priority; spending time with other believers is.

– Donald Miller

I started ‘Storyline’ after I’d accomplished all my goals and still wasn’t happy. I’d become a ‘New York Times’ bestselling author, which was my goal from high school, and yet I was less happy after accomplishing my goals than I was before.

– Donald Miller

I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, ‘This is my idea and here’s all the reasons that it’s right.’ It doesn’t make for very compelling reading.

– Donald Miller

The reason I like writing a memoir is because it isn’t preachy.

– Donald Miller

People are lonely. They want company and your book can provide them company and a little bit of hope. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

– Donald Miller

I think, in the grand epic, Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is to be a saint in a story that he is telling.

– Donald Miller

One of the things I love about our source text as Christians, the Bible, is that it teaches us not to avoid conflict. And it teaches us that before the fall of man, in Paradise, there was conflict. God wants conflict to be a part of your life.

– Donald Miller

Life is a story. You and I are telling stories; they may suck, but we are telling stories. And we tell stories about the things that we want. So you go through your bank account, and those are things you have told stories about.

– Donald Miller

I think it’s very hard for us, for Christians, to understand that it’s okay to read a book, for instance, on how to manage your time. There’s nothing wrong with that.

– Donald Miller

The most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus.

– Donald Miller

Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It’s like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.

– Donald Miller

I used to write when I was in the mood or felt inspired. Anymore, I write whether I feel inspired or not. It’s a discipline. So that’s definitely different. It’s part of maturing as a person and as a professional.

– Donald Miller

Christians might say that you can’t live a more meaningful life without Jesus. Well, that’s absolutely not true. You can. You can enjoy a sunrise whether you know Jesus or not.

– Donald Miller

Every human being is searching for a deep sense of meaning, and yet we’re all chasing success. We’ve confused one for the other.

– Donald Miller

There’s no authoritarian structure at Reed College, but the education is conservative. So what you have is a lot of students who are very authentically looking for truth.

– Donald Miller

I think that’s the true litmus test for someone who has become closer to Jesus: their heart is more loving, accepting, childlike, less believing that they have all the answers and more believing in Him.

– Donald Miller

Without a positive male role model in your life, it is extremely difficult to become a man who benefits his family and benefits society.

– Donald Miller

We don’t naturally want to take responsibility for our lives. We want to give the responsibility to someone else. We blame them when our lives aren’t good.

– Donald Miller

If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict. If you don’t have conflict, it can’t be a good story.

– Donald Miller

It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler. The gospel, the very good news, is simple.

– Donald Miller

I love writing books – I really do. If I could just quit everything and work on a book every day, I would love that most.

– Donald Miller

Most of us are waiting. We’re waiting for something interesting to happen. And I think we’re going to wait forever if we don’t do something more interesting with our lives.

– Donald Miller

I think understanding your life as a story is a really terrific way of kind of knowing where you are and knowing who you are.

– Donald Miller

One of the things I associate with God is a sunrise. How many sunrises have you missed over the years, and God created that?

– Donald Miller