Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott

Author, Essayist

Anne Lamott is a renowned author and speaker, celebrated for her insightful books on faith, writing, and the human experience, including 'Bird by Bird.'

Writing People Thinking Children Believe Heart
Born
April 10, 1954
Quotes
647
Rank
#395

About Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott — Life and Legacy

Anne Lamott is a prominent American author known for her candid explorations of faith, writing, and the intricacies of life. Her notable work, 'Bird by Bird,' offers a unique blend of personal anecdotes and practical advice, establishing her as a voice of authenticity in contemporary literature. Lamott's core philosophy revolves around embracing imperfection and vulnerability, as reflected in her quote, 'Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.' This perspective challenges conventional notions of success and encourages writers to find freedom in their flaws. Through her writing, she articulates the struggles of creativity and the importance of faith, asserting that 'writing is a form of prayer.' Lamott's insights resonate deeply with readers, as she navigates the complexities of the human experience with humor and honesty. Her work continues to inspire individuals to embrace their authentic selves and find meaning in their creative endeavors.

Quote collection

Anne Lamott quotes (page 1 of 33)

647 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
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"You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp."

Hurt Grief Heart
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"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

Minutes Including Ifs
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"Close friendships are one of life's miracles - that a few people get to know you deeply, all your messy or shadowy stuff along with the beauty and sweetness, and they still love you. Not only still love you, but love you more and more deeply. I would do anything for my closest friends, and they would do almost anything for me, and that is about as spiritual a truth as you can get."

Friendship Spiritual Love You
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"Oh, my God. What if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your novel or memoir written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools or oceans because your thighs were jiggly or you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen."

Nice Ocean Kids
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"I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us."

Inspirational Wisdom Autism
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"Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."

Faith Light Return
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"Some people have a thick skin and you don’t. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world. The cost is high, but the blessing of being compassionate is beyond your wildest dreams."

Dream Pain Heart
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"Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity."

Dog Knowing Sides
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"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."

Prayer Honesty Kids
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"But you can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment. And that moment is home."

Grief Home Voice
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"... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]"

Nuts Tribes Reason
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"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."

Father Real Light
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"Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos."

Jesus Struggle Thinking
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"Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you."

Baby People Looks
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"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd 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 people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are."

Creating People Trying
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"Help" is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn't matter how you pray--with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors. Years ago I wrote an essay that began, "Some people think that God is in the details, but I have come to believe that God is in the bathroom."

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

Running Commitment Acceptance
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"I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda."

Secret Trying Giants
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"Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life - it gave me me. It provided the time and experience and failures and triumphs and friends who helped me step into the shape that had been waiting for me all my life...I not only get along with me most of the time now, I am militantly and maternally on my own side."

Waiting Age Triumph
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"You can either set brick as a laborer or as an artist. You can make the work a chore, or you can have a good time. You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so in which you can find yourself."

Artist Finding Yourself Tea
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