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Anne Lamott Quotes about Running

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Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

Anne Lamott
Running, Commitment, Acceptance
Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.236, Anchor

It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right. We're bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they're not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to the others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull.

Anne Lamott
Inspirational, Running, Struggle

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.

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

You don't want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can't fill up when you're holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water - just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness.

Anne Lamott
Running, Writing, Filling Up

There is something so tender about this to me, about being willing to have your makeup wash off, your eyes tear up, your nose start to run. Its tender partly because it harkens back to infancy, to your mother washing your face with love and lots or water, tending to you, making you clean all over again.

Anne Lamott
Mother, Running, Eye
Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.204, Anchor

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

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

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.

Anne Lamott
Running, Writing, Shine On

I'm drawn to almost any piece of writing with the words 'divine love' and 'impeachment' in the first sentence. But I know the word 'divine' makes many progressive people run screaming for their cute little lives, and so one hesitates to use it.

Anne Lamott
Cute, Running, Writing

I've heard people say that God is the gift of desperation, and there's a lot to be said for having really reached a bottom where you've run out of any more good ideas or plans for everybody else's behavior; or how to save and fix and rescue; or just get out of a huge mess, possibly of your own creation.

Anne Lamott
Running, Ideas, People

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.

Anne Lamott
Running, Thinking, White

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