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Anne Lamott Quotes - Page 23

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

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

Real, Good Day, Writing

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.215, Anchor

...It really IS easier to experience spiritual connection when your life is in the process of coming apart.

Spiritual, Connections, Life Is

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.13, Penguin

Feeding a baby is like filling a hole with putty - you get it in and then you sort of shave off all the excess around the hole and get it back in, like you're spackling.

Baby, Excess, Like You

Needless to say, there was no one around remotely fitting the description of a normal person: I was at a writing conference.

Writing, Normal, Fitting

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

It was simple reality - most competitive tennis players in my day were privileged, spoiled, entitled and white. Also, many of them were beautiful, fit, tan and of good stock - great big hair and white teeth and long legs. Then there were the rest of us.

Beautiful, Simple, Player

The last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling-and it washed over me.

Song, Kids, Voice

Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.49, Anchor

I didn't write about my mother much in the third year after she died. I was still trying to get my argument straight: When her friends or our relatives wondered why I was still so hard on her, I could really lay out the case for what it had been like to be raised by someone who had loathed herself, her husband, even her own name.

Mother, Husband, Writing

If I were going to begin practicing the presence of God for the first time today, it would help to begin by admitting the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.

Three, Admitting, Littles

Anne Lamott (2013). “Help: The First Essential Prayer”, p.12, Hachette UK

Think of a fine painter attempting to capture an inner vision, beginning with one corner of the canvas, painting what she thinks should be there, not quite pulling it off, covering it over with white paint, and trying again, each time finding out what her painting isn't, until she finally finds out what it is. And when you finally do find out what one corner of your vision is; you're off and running.

Running, Thinking, White

I got a lot of things that society had promised would make me whole and fulfilled - all the things that the culture tells you from preschool on will quiet the throbbing anxiety inside you - stature, the respect of colleagues, maybe even a kind of low-grade fame.

Anxiety, Culture, Quiet

I love readings and my readers, but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright, and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud, and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful, but I'm annoying, and a phony.

Funny, Reading, Voice

I never had a particularly strong craving to procreate, except for earlier fantasies of wanting to be Marmee in Little Women.

Strong, Littles, Fantasy

Plot springs from character... I've always sort of believed that these people inside me- these characters- know who they are and what they're about and what happens, and they need me to help get it down on paper because they don't type.

Spring, Character, Writing

Just don't pretend you know more about your characters than they do, because you don't. Stay open to them. It's teatime and all the dolls are at the table. Listen. It's that simple.

Character, Writing, Simple

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.53, Anchor

You want to give me chocolate and flowers? That would be great. I love them both. I just don't want them out of guilt, and I don't want them if you're not going to give them to all the people who helped mother our children.

Mother, Children, Flower

I do know the sorrow of being ordinary, and that much of our life is spent doing the crazy mental arithmetic of how, at any given moment, we might improve, or at least disguise or present our defects and screw-ups in either more charming or more intimidating ways.

Crazy, Sorrow, Ordinary

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.37, Penguin

I am an Aries. Although I do not believe in astrology, I think this is exactly the right sign to have been born under.

Believe, Thinking, Astrology

I suspect that he was a child who thought differently than his peers, who may have had serious conversations with grown-ups, who as a young person, like me, accepted being alone quite a lot. I think that this sort of person often becomes either a writer or a career criminal.

Children, Thinking, Careers

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.20, Anchor

Summer nearly does me in every year. It's too hot and the light is unforgiving and the days go on way too long.

Summer, Light, Years

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.217, Penguin

If the present is really all we have, then the present lasts forever.

Forever, Lasts, Ifs

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.145, Penguin

I was raised by my parents to believe that you had a moral obligation to try and help save the world.

Believe, Parent, Trying

Some people seem to understand this - that life and change take time - but I am not one of those people.

People, Life And Change, Take Time

Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.

Writing, Needs, Wake Up

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.19, Anchor

We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

Children, Reproductive Rights, Unwanted

Anne Lamott (2008). “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith”, p.81, Penguin

I feel incredibly successful. I make a living as a writer and am able to help support a big family, my church, my bleeding-heart causes.

Heart, Successful, Support

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