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Anne Lamott Quotes - Page 6

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

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break.

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break.

Children, Kids, Parenting

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.

Running, Fun, Writing

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.

Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, "We *told* you not to tell." But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on.

Sibling, Thinking, Clouds

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.6, Anchor

It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life.

Cheer, Training, Weight

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.201, Penguin

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

Motivational, Book, Reading

Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.15, Anchor

Radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, “Well, isn’t she full of herself,” smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea.

Nice, Air, Self

Grace means you're in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.

Mean, Different Universes, Grace

"Lamott keeps the faith but still hates Bush" by Stephen J. Lyons, www.sfgate.com. March 20, 2005.

I don't remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don't even know exist until you love a child.

Inspiring, Funny Inspirational, Children

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

So what are we supposed to do again, when we hate everything? You stop pretending life is such fun or makes sense. It's often messy and cruel and dull, and we do the best we can. It's unfair, and jerks seem to win. But you fall in love with a few people. Like I love you, Elizabeth. You're the angel God sent me.

Falling In Love, Fun, Hate

Anne Lamott (2010). “Imperfect Birds: A Novel”, p.14, Penguin

Sometimes this human stuff is slimy and pathetic...but better to feel it and talk about it and walk through it than to spend a lifetime being silently poisoned.

Stuff, Sometimes, Lifetime

This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.

Ocean, Heart, Artist

The truth of my experience is that we are all a lot more alike than we are different.

Different

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

Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.

Inspiring, Feet, Looks

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

All I ever wanted since I arrived here on Earth were the things that turned out to be within reach. The same things I needed as a baby - to go from cold to warm, lonely to held, the vessel to the giver, empty to full. You can change the world with a hot bath, if you sink into it from a place of knowing that you are worth profound care, even when you're dirty and rattled. Who knew?

Baby, Lonely, Dirty

"Eating Healthy: Habits To Help You Live a Life That Satisfies the Soul" By Anne Lamott, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 5, 2012.

What fills us is real, sweet, dopey, funny life.

Life, Sweet, Funny Life

No" is a complete sentence.

Health, Inspire, Sentences

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

Love is so much bigger than our ignorance.

Ignorance, Love Is, Bigger

Source: www.pbs.org

When God is going to do something wonderful, He or She always starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing, He or She starts with an impossibility.

Faith, Hardship, Wonderful

Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.33, Penguin

I also learned that you didn’t come onto this earth as a perfectionist or control freak. You weren’t born a person of cringe and contraction. You were born as energy, as life, made of the same stuff as stars, blossoms, breezes. You learned contraction to survive, but that was then. You have paid through the nose-paid but good. It is now your turn to reap.

Stars, Energy, Noses

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.

Stories, Happened

Twitter post from Apr 23, 2012

If you fixate on the big picture, the whole shebang, the overview, you miss the stitching.

Missing, Bigs, Big Picture

"Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair". Book by Anne Lamott, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 29, 2013.

I am a terrible and lazy Christian. I do not believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. I just skip about a third of it. I love the parts I love so much, but I find a lot of it just appalling. When a right-wing person quotes a passage in order to attack and stigmatize another person--or group of people--I just roll my eyes.

Christian, Believe, Eye

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

Life is really pretty tricky, and there's a lot of loss, and the longer you stay alive, the more people you lose whom you actually couldn't live without.

Loss, People, Alive

Laughter is a bubbly, effervescent form of holiness

Laughter, Holiness, Form

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