Anne Lamott citations

Page 2

“My heart was broken and my head was just barely inhabitable”

“… because when people have seen you at their worst, you don't have to put on the mask as much.”

“If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”

“I worry that Jesus drinks himself to sleep when he hears me talk like this.”

“If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package.”

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

“We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.”

“… since you can't heal your own sick mind with your own sick mind, I needed to consult somebody else's sick mind.”

“… most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you.”

“I liked those ladies! They were helpers, and they danced.' These are the words I want on my gravestone: that I was a helper, and that I danced.”

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

“Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting.”

“Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking.”

“The depth of the feeling continued to surprise and threaten me, but each time it hit again and I bore it… I would discover that it hadn't washed me away.”

“My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.”

“It's better to be kind than to be right.”

“Certainty is missing the point entirely.”

“This is one thing they forget to mention in most child-rearing books, that at times you will just lose your mind. Period.”

“The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.”

“Never compare your insides to everyone else's outsides.”

“You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are feeding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.”

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”

“[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)”

“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.”

“Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

“I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.”

“So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human?
I'm not sure. That's my answer: I'm not sure.”

“The thing about light is that it really isn’t yours; it’s what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself.”

“I'm here to be me, which is taking a great deal longer than I had hoped.”