Writing Quotes by Anne Lamott

Good writing is about telling the truth.

— Anne Lamott

“He is a writer. He makes the rest of them nervous.”

— Anne Lamott

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious.

— Anne Lamott

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

— Anne Lamott

“The way I dance is by writing.”

— Anne Lamott

At our most primitive we are storytellers and dancers.

— Anne Lamott

Write as if your parents are dead.

— Anne Lamott

“in order to be a writer, you have to learn to be reverent.”

— Anne Lamott

You just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can…

— Anne Lamott

Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in.

— Anne Lamott

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

— Anne Lamott

“Writing like this is a little like milking a cow: the milk is so rich and delicious, and the cow is so…

— Anne Lamott

For some of us, good books and beautiful writing are our ultimate solace, even more comforting than exquisite food.

— Anne Lamott

“Becoming a better writer is going to help you become a better reader, and that is the real payoff.”

— Anne Lamott

My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him.

— Anne Lamott

Write regularly, whether you feel like writing or not, and whether you think what you're writing is any good or not.

— Anne Lamott

Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.

— Anne Lamott

I get to tell my truth. I get to seek meaning and realization. I get to live fully, wildly, imperfectly. That's why…

— Anne Lamott

Writing is how I communicate my deepest beliefs, and what I hope are helpful observations about our dual citizenship, as children of…

— Anne Lamott

“We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing,…

— Anne Lamott

I'd wanted to be a writer my whole life. But when I finally made it, I felt like a greyhound catching the…

— Anne Lamott

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve…

— Anne Lamott

“You are going to have to give and give and give, or there's no reason for you to be writing. You have…

— Anne Lamott

“Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you…

— Anne Lamott

Being a writer is part of a noble tradition, as is being a musician – the last egalitarian and open associations. No…

— Anne Lamott

I didn't write about my mother much in the third year after she died. I was still trying to get my argument…

— Anne Lamott

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…

— Anne Lamott

When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about…

— Anne Lamott

You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart--your…

— Anne Lamott

“Writing: shitty first drafts. Butt in chair. Just do it. You own everything that happened to you. You are going to feel…

— Anne Lamott

If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this…

— Anne Lamott

E.L. Doctorow said once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far…

— Anne Lamott

“This is our goal as writers, I think; to help others have this sense of--please forgive me--wonder, of seeing things anew, things…

— Anne Lamott

Two things put me in the spirit to give. One is that I have come to think of everyone with whom I…

— Anne Lamott

“What I've learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in…

— Anne Lamott

“All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. .…

— Anne Lamott

“Because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out…

— Anne Lamott

My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him. I had some…

— Anne Lamott

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.…

— Anne Lamott

“So why does our writing matter, again?" they ask. Because of the spirit, I say. Because of the heart. Writing and reading…

— Anne Lamott