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Anne Lamott Quotes - Page 14

All Quotes Acceptance Age Animation Anxiety Art Atheist Awakening Belief Caring Certainty Character Children Church Commitment Community Culture Dancing Discipline Doubt Drinking Earth Effort Energy Expectations Faith Fear Feelings Giving Giving Up God Goodness Grace Gratitude Grief Grieving Hardship Hate Healing Heart Heaven Home Hurt Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Intuition Jesus Joy Laughter Life Loss Lying Magic Makeup Mask Memories Morning Mountain Pain Parenting Past Perfectionism Prayer Progress Reading Reality Recovery Resentment Running Self Esteem Shame Silence Singing Son Soul Spring Struggle Students Suffering Sunday Tea Understanding Vision Waiting Water Worry Writing

We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.

We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.

Writing, Men, Important

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.51, Anchor

Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation.

Thinking, Animation, Breaths

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.29, Anchor

Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.

Restoration, Awakening, Walks

Anne Lamott (2013). “Help: The First Essential Prayer”, p.11, Hachette UK

A whole lot of us believers, of all different religions, are ready to turn back the tide of madness by walking together, in both the dark and the light - in other words, through life - registering voters as we go, and keeping the faith.

Dark, Light, Together

God sent Jesus to join the human experience, which means to make a lot of mistakes. Jesus didn't arrive here knowing how to walk. He had fingers and toes, confusion, sexual feelings, crazy human internal processes. He had the same prejudices as the rest of his tribe: he had to learn that the Canaanite woman was a person. He had to suffer the hardships and tedium and setbacks of being a regular person. If he hadn't the incarnation would mean nothing.

Jesus, Crazy, Mistake

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.101, Penguin

You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are fedding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.

Jesus, People, Medical Insurance

My parents, and librarians along the way, taught me about the space between words; about the margins, where so many juicy moments of life and spirit and friendship could be found. In a library, you could find miracles and truth and you might find something that would make you laugh so hard that you get shushed, in the friendliest way.

Space, Laughing, Parent

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.143, Penguin

You just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can use you to write it.

Writing, Use, Want

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.8, Anchor

This business of having been issued a body is deeply confusing... Bodies are so messy and disappointing.

Confusing, Body, Disappointing

I don't have any romantic views of parenting. Every step of the way it's really hard. It's a dangerous world, physically and psychologically.

Views, Dangerous World, Way

"Anne Lamott's directions for grandparents: 'Some Assembly Required'". Interview with Katia Hetter, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

No matter what circumstances, it's hard to be a parent and maintain a sense of self and identity in the world.

Self, Parent, Identity

"Anne Lamott's directions for grandparents: 'Some Assembly Required'". Interview with Katia Hetter, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

If you have a problem you can solve by throwing money at it, you don't have a very interesting problem.

Money, Interesting, Problem

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, Anchor

It's intrusive for grandparents to think they're in charge. It's manipulative. Also, it's self-destructive, since if the parents have to resist you, you won't get your mitts on the kid as often.

Kids, Thinking, Self

"Anne Lamott's directions for grandparents: 'Some Assembly Required'". Interview with Katia Hetter, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

Anything you say from your heart to God is a prayer. But "why" is rarely a useful question. When Job keeps asking God why he has had such loss and suffering, God says, "You wouldn't understand." I always want to know why, and I almost never have a good answer.

Jobs, Prayer, Heart

"Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

He told me about his monster. His sounded just like mine without quite so much mascara. When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are.

Light, People, Shining

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.198, Anchor

I've always thought I could use my brain and my heart to jockey everyone around to the good. But life is not jockeyable. When you try, you make people infinitely crazier than they already were, including or especially yourself.

Heart, People, Brain

Mostly what happens in the novels never happened in real life.

Real, Novel, Happened

Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. April 6, 2010.

I'm one of those religious people who are afraid of everything. I'm instantly worried about everything that could go wrong.

Religious, People, Worried

"Anne Lamott's directions for grandparents: 'Some Assembly Required'". Interview with Katia Hetter, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way. It's a lie if you make something up. But you make it up in the name of truth, and then you give your heart to expressing it clearly.

Lying, Heart, Names

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.52, Anchor

You keep working on your piece over and over, trying to get the sections and paragraphs and sentences and the whole just right, but there's a point at which you can tell you've begun hurting the work with your perfectionism. Then you have to release the work to new eyes.

Hurt, Writing, Eye

Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides.

Believe, People, Broken

"'Every single thing I know, as of today': Author Anne Lamott shares life wisdom in viral Facebook post" by Erin Clements, www.today.com. April 10, 2015.

... everyone has come to understand that unconditional love is a reality, but with as shelf life of about eight to ten seconds. [p. 110]

Unconditional Love, Reality, Love Is

To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be a part of a solution, to understand a little about life and to pass this on.

Philosophy, Writing, Thinking

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.107, Anchor

I'm kind of a gossip hound, but watching the media whip the small fires into giant forest fires so that they can cover the result is infuriating.

Fire, Media, Gossip

We cheated, you and me, and someone noticed. I noticed you; someone else noticed me. It hurts us. That's not so bad. So many people cheat. Everywhere on every level. Everyone's cheated. I'm just saying that you don't need to see yourself as a cheater. Because that's not who you are. You're someone who cheated. There's a difference, and you should try to get that difference, or that's who you'll grow up to be.

Hurt, Growing Up, Cheater

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