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

Quote collection

Anne Lamott quotes (page 4 of 33)

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

Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"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."

Inspirational Running Struggle
Read quote 32 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"When faced with a crisis, do three things: breathe, pray and be kind."

Three Be Kind Praying
Read quote 30 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I'm all over the place, up and down, scattered, withdrawing, trying to find some elusive sense of serenity." The world can't give that serenity. The world can't give us peace. We can only find it in our hearts." I hate that." I know. But the good news is that by the same token, the world can't take it away."

Hate Heart Giving
Read quote 30 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"In a library, you can find small miracles and truth, and you might find something that will make you laugh so hard that you will get shushed, in the friendliest way. I have found sanctuary in libraries my whole life, and there is sanctuary there now, from the war, from the storms of our families and our own minds. Libraries are like mountains or meadows or creeks: sacred space. So this afternoon, I'll walk to the library."

War Space Laughing
Read quote 29 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I don’t know why life isn’t constructed to be seamless and safe, why we make such glaring mistakes, things fall so short of our expectations, and our hearts get broken and out kids do scary things and our parents get old and don’t always remember to put pants on before they go out for a stroll. I don’t know why it’s not more like it is in the movies, why things don’t come out neatly and lessons can’t be learned when you’re in the mood for learning them, why love and grace often come in such motley packaging."

Mistake Fall Heart
Read quote 27 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"The miracle is that we are here, that no matter how undone we’ve been the night before, we wake up every morning and are still here. It is phenomenal just to be."

Morning Night Miracle
Read quote 27 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"Love falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted. Love pulls people back to their feet. Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil. The sun rises."

Falling In Love Feet People
Read quote 27 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I do not know much about God and prayer, but I have come to believe over the last twenty-five years, that there's something to be said about keeping prayer simple. Help, Thanks, Wow."

Prayer Believe Simple
Read quote 26 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"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
Read quote 26 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"Never compare your insides to everyone else's outsides."

Compare
Read quote 25 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"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."

Writing Night Two
Read quote 25 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"It's incredibly touching when someone who seems so hopeless finds a few inches of light to stand in and makes everything work as well as possible. All of us lurch and fall, sit in the dirt, are helped to our feet, keep moving, feel like idiots, lose our balance, gain it, help others get back on their feet, and keep going."

Moving Fall Helping Others
Read quote 25 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over."

Law People Four
Read quote 24 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be."

Inspirational Inspiration Born
Read quote 23 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen."

Spring Flower Eye
Read quote 23 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better."

Writing Should Have People
Read quote 22 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"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
Read quote 22 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"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
Read quote 22 likes
Anne Lamott Author, Essayist
Popular

"I spent my whole life helping my mother carry around her psychic trunks like a bitter bellhop. So a great load was lifted when she died, and my life was much easier."

Mother Psychics Helping
Read quote 21 likes