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Anne Lamott Quotes - Page 19

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

My friend Terry says that when you need to make a decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don’t know what to do, just do one thing or the other, because the worst that can happen is that you will have made a

My friend Terry says that when you need to make a decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don’t know what to do, just do one thing or the other, because the worst that can happen is that you will have made a terrible mistake.

Mistake, Decision, Needs

Good writing is about telling the truth.

Writing, Telling The Truth, Good Writing

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

You are going to love some of your characters because they are you or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some of your characters for the same reason.

Hate, Character, Reason

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.45, Anchor

So I was doing well academically, and I was a well-ranked tennis player and was the apple of my handsome father's eye-and then I would bring home a report card with a B-plus on it, and my parents would look at the report card as if I'd flunked. "Uh, honey?" one of them would ask, looking perplexed. "Now, this isn't a criticism but, if you could get a B-plus in philosophy, how much harder would it have been to get an A-minus?"

Father, Philosophy, Eye

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.21, Anchor

That's about 90 percent of my theological life - radical self-care. Put your own oxygen mask on first. I watch the self-talk that goes through my mind, and if I am being critical with myself, I shake myself out of it.

Self, Oxygen, Mind

Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

The stuff I write about is pretty universal, the things my closest friends and I talk about - our anxiety about being here on this scary planet, during these scary times, as vulnerable as kittens, having lost so many people I couldn't live without.

Writing, People, Anxiety

Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

Sam said to me the other day, "I love you like 20 tyrannosauruses on 20 mountaintops," and this is the exact same way in which I love him.

Love You, I Love Him, Way

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.9, Anchor

At our most primitive we are storytellers and dancers.

Dancer, Primitive, Storyteller

Being a writer is part of a noble tradition, as is being a musician – the last egalitarian and open associations. No matter what happens in terms of fame and fortune, dedication to writing is a marching-step forward from where you were before, when you didn’t care about reaching out to the world, when you weren’t hoping to contribute, when you were just standing there doing some job into which you had fallen.

Jobs, Writing, Dedication

Don’t underestimate this gift of finding a place in the writing world: if you really work at describing creatively on paper the truth as you understand it, as you have experienced it, with the people or material who are in you, who are asking that you help them get written, you will come to a secret feeling of honor.

Writing, People, Feelings

There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal.

Reading, Writing, Thinking

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.232, Anchor

My best teachers were mess, failure, death, mistakes, and the people I hated, including myself.

Teacher, Mistake, People

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.11, Penguin

The problem with God - or at any rate, one of the top five most annoying things about God - is that he or she rarely answers right away.

Answers, Problem, Annoying

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.9, Penguin

If God was giving me a ham, I'd be crazy not to receive it. Maybe it was the ham of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Crazy, Giving, Ham

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.10, Penguin

You must not inflict life on someone who will be resented.

Anne Lamott (2011). “Crooked Little Heart: A Novel”, p.271, Anchor

Write regularly, whether you feel like writing or not, and whether you think what you're writing is any good or not.

Writing, Thinking, Feels

Learning to love back is the hardest part of being alive.

Alive, Hardest, Learning To Love

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.196, Penguin

I kept asking God for help, and after a while I realized something -- that Josh was not enjoying this either. He was just trying to take care of himself, and I made the radical decision to let him off the hook.

Decision, Trying, Hook

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.93, Anchor

They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.

Religious, Israel, Justice

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.26, Anchor

Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another.

Important, Ask Me, Asks

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.97, Anchor

The first holy truth in God 101 is that men and women of true faith have always had to accept the mystery of God's identity and love and ways. I hate that, but it's the truth.

Hate, Men, Identity

I devoured books like a person taking vitamins, afraid that otherwise I would remain this gelatinous narcissist, with no possibility of ever becoming thoughtful, of ever being taken seriously.

Taken, Reading, Book

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.21, Anchor

I've given guys blow jobs just because I've run out of things to talk about.' Oh, Rae. Who hasn't

Running, Jobs, Sex

Anne Lamott (2011). “Crooked Little Heart: A Novel”, p.356, Anchor

The solution is always spiritual, and it almost never has anything to do with the problem ... laughter is carbonated holiness.

Spiritual, Laughter, Holiness

If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses dont go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

Running, Writing, Shine On

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