Quotes from Frank Peretti

I'm trying to move a little more toward literary fiction while still retaining a popular feel.

We have a God who loves us. We are in the palm of his hand. He doesn't leave us, and He doesn't forsake us.

My earlier books, 'The Oath,' 'This Present Darkness' were pretty straight adventure. 'The Visitation' is like a deeper book, more thought-provoking. It probes at character more.

I try to write cinematically. Let me define what I mean by that. First of all, I try to write in a visual way so that the reader can watch a movie in their head. And it keeps moving. I try to structure the stories like a screenplay may be structured.

There's a reason evolution is a hot-button issue. It's not just a matter of science, either. It's a matter of the big questions in life - why are we here, what is truth, where is our moral basis?

First of all, I was a good Christian kid. My mom and dad taught me never to fight. So I never fought. The other kids picked that up right away. They said, 'Oh, he's not going to try to do anything.' They'd push me, shove me, hit me. I'd just stand there and take it.

Evolution is the key to avoiding the whole issue of God. When you challenge evolution, you're basically challenging someone on a spiritual level.

Generally, my notes and outlines comprise more words than my novels. I suppose that's one reason I'm a comparatively slow writer, something that has always bothered me given the fact that other authors can turn out a book every six months while I usually take about two years.

It's man's nature to abuse knowledge and power, be it in the realm of science, government, or Wall Street. Take God out of the picture, and you have real trouble.

You want proof there's a God? Look outside, watch a sunset.

Killing one person makes you a murderer. Killing a million people makes you a king. Killing them all makes you God.

I always want to be on the cutting edge.

If you're going to read a Peretti book, you're going to get a message. But the book is a pretty good read.

When I first started out writing the 'Darkness' books, there was, at least in my mind, a certain sort of rulebook we had to follow.

I'd like to write a series that, in an adventurous and fun way, teaches kids a way to discern between good and evil, to establish a foundation on moral absolutes.

Staying alive is nice, but you can't do that forever. It's how you live the life you have while you have it.

There is a vital lesson to be learned here, a Truth our society must not lose sight of, and that is the sanctity of every human life and the dignity of every individual.

Some folks run from the doubt and go backward. You try for all the spiritual Band-Aids you can find... when actually, what you need to do is press forward, to accept those doubts and work through them.

I just feel the need as a writer to try something kind of deep and fulfilling.

If you've ever been there, you've never forgotten. The feeling is as haunting and familiar as the smell of a junior high school locker room.

These humans are only of flesh, of mud, and I suggest there is one force stronger than their zeal for God: their own self-righteousness! We will make them proud, pure in their own eyes, vindictive, unjust judges over each other, and stir up such a noise among them that the simplest prayer will not be uttered!

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. —JOHN 1:5 (ESV)

Don't worry about getting perfect, just keep getting better.

Preach Christ . . . and if you must, use words." Comforting others puts our pain into perspective.