Home > Author > Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott QUOTES

Anne Lamott QUOTES

1 " 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. "

― Anne Lamott , Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

2 " Hope is not about proving anything. It's about choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us. "

― Anne Lamott , Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

3 " 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 , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

4 " E.L. Doctorow said once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard. "

― Anne Lamott , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

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

― Anne Lamott , Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

6 " It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

7 " Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. "

― Anne Lamott

8 " Laughter is carbonated holiness. "

― Anne Lamott

9 " I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right. "

― Anne Lamott

10 " The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

11 " ...most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

12 " You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. "

― Anne Lamott

13 " Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

14 " Teenagers who do not go to church are adored by God, but they don't get to meet some of the people who love God back. "

― Anne Lamott , Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

15 " ‎You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. "

― Anne Lamott

16 " Every Sunday I nudge Sam in her direction, and he walks to where she is sitting and hugs her. She smells him behind the ears, where he most smells like sweet unwashed new potatoes. This is in fact what I think God may smell like, a young child's slightly dirty neck. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

17 " Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird. "

― Anne Lamott , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

18 " Tom has been having a difficult patch, and we meet at the church of IKEA as often as possible, because it is equidistant from our houses and always cheers us up. Yesterday I asked, 'In your depression, and with so many people having such a hard time, where is Advent?' He tried to wiggle out of it by saying, 'You Protestants and your little questions!' Then, when pushed, he said: 'Faith is a decision. Do we believe we are ultimately doomed and fucked and there's no way out? Or that God and goodness make a difference? There is heaven, community, and hope - and hope that there is life beyond the grave.'
'But Tom, at the same time, the grave is very real, dark and cold and lonely.' 'Advent is not for the naive. Because in spite of the dark and cold, we see light - you look up, or you make light, with candles, or with strands of lightbulbs on trees. And you give light. Beauty helps, in art and nature and faces. Friends help. Solidarity helps. If you ask me, when people return phone calls, it's about as good as it gets. And who knows beyond that. "

― Anne Lamott

19 " Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship. "

― Anne Lamott , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

20 " You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won't really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we'll figure out a way to divert the ocean. 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. "

― Anne Lamott , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life