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Anne Lamott Quotes - Page 16

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

For me, being a writer is not an altered state. It's very ponderous, and very - it's like being a shoemaker.

For me, being a writer is not an altered state. It's very ponderous, and very - it's like being a shoemaker.

States, Altered States, Altered

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

I think that is why we stay close to our families, no matter how neurotic the members, how deeply annoying or dull- because when people have seen you at your worst, you don’t have to put on the mask as much.

Thinking, People, Dull

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.190, Anchor

...after a few days at the desk, telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat.

Cat, Interesting, Crafts

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.3, Anchor

I would seriously rather be in a long line at the DMV than eat with people I don't know.

Long, People, Lines

Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.

Revelations, Given, Materials

I am drawn to people that are not going to shy away from the very dark, scary stuff of the human condition and in a lot of cases people need alcohol or drugs to create poetry and poetic pose that can take you so far out there where you are still able to recognize yourself and then to bring you back home where you're not the same person you were when you left.

Home, Dark, People

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

When what we see catches us off guard, and when we write it as realistically and openly as possible, it offers hope. You look around and say, Wow, there's that same mockingbird; there's that woman in the red hat again. The woman in the red hat is about hope because she's in it up to her neck, too, yet every day she puts on that crazy red hat and walks to town.

Crazy, Writing, Looks

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.101, Anchor

We're out there somewhere between the known and the unknown, trying to reel in both for a closer look.

Inspirational, Trying, Looks

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.104, Anchor

Your unconscious can't work when you are breathing down its neck.

Inspirational, Breathing, Necks

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.182, Anchor

To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass.

Powerful, Mind, Ass

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.102, Anchor

For me, Jesus is my cleft in the rock. He is my safest friend, my safe totally loving accepting big brother.

Jesus, Brother, Rocks

"Like a puppy in a Christmas stocking". Interview with Susan Olasky, world.wng.org. September 20, 2003.

I believe in listening to the - what calls you from your heart and your spirit and if you do it badly, like learning to dance, you do it badly or you're going to kick yourself when you grow old and you meant to do it.

Believe, Heart, Listening

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

I was usually filled with a sense of something like shame until I'd remember that wonderful line of Blake's- that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love- and I would take a long deep breath and force these words out of my strangulated throat: "Thank you.

Long, Lines, Remember

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.91, Anchor

It is hard to remember that you are a cherished spiritual being when you're burping up apple fritters and Cheetos.

Spiritual, Apples, Remember

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.47, Penguin

I used to think that paired opposites were a given, that love was the opposite of hate, right the opposite of wrong. But now I think we sometimes buy into these concepts because it is so much easier to embrace absolutes than to suffer reality. I don't think anything is the opposite of love. Reality is unforgivingly complex.

Hate, Reality, Thinking

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.104, Anchor

If our lives are made up of a string of a thousand moments, at some of those moments we look a lot more spiritually evolved than at others.

Looks, Moments, Made

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)

Buddhist, Love You, Grieving

Anne Lamott (1997). “Crooked Little Heart”, Pantheon

I remember staring at my son endlessly when he was an infant, stunned by his very existence, wondering where on earth he had come from.

Son, Earth, Remember

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.139, Penguin

I cry intermittently, like a summer rain. I don't feel racked by the crying; in fact, it hydrates me. Then rage wells up in me, and I want to take a crowbar to all the cars in the neighborhood.

Summer, Rain, Car

Anne Lamott (1994). “Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year”, Fawcett

Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware.

Rose, Ego, Thrill

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.218, Anchor

Listen to your broccoli and it will tell you how to eat it.

Broccoli

Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.

Intuition, Juicy, Rich

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.112, Anchor

Grace is having a commitment to- or at least an acceptance of- being ineffective and foolish. That our bottled charm is the main roadblock to drinking that clear cool glass of love.

Drinking, Commitment, Acceptance

...since you can't heal your own sick mind with your own sick mind, I needed to consult somebody else's sick mind.

Sick, Mind, Heal

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.74, Anchor

I accidentally forgot to graduate from college.

College, Graduates

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.302, Penguin

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