Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
I devoured books like a person taking vitamins, afraid that otherwise I would remain this gelatinous narcissist, with no possibility of ever… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
The difference between a writer who toughs it out and one who doesn't is that you push through the parts where you… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
There are moments when I am writing when I think that if other people knew how I felt right now, they’d burn… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“In general…there’s no point in writing hopeless novels. We all know we’re going to die; what’s important is the kind of men… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through,… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“No one has expressed it better than a great novelist I heard once on a talk show who said something like "You… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Try to write in a directly emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don't be afraid of your material or… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something-anything-down on paper. A friend… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
You keep working on your piece over and over, trying to get the sections and paragraphs and sentences and the whole just… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Shirley Jackson said that a confused reader is an antagonistic reader, and I live by that. It's okay to start anywhere, and… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be? — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right. — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, "It's not like you don't… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“I want people who write to crash or dive below the surface, where life is so cold and confusing and hard to… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“But it is fantasy to think that successful writers do not have these bored, defeated hours, these hours of deep insecurity when… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
I took notes on the people around me, in my town, in my family, in my memory. I took notes on my… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don’t worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
They believe that if they do get published, a wonderful new life is in store. It will turn out that deep down… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“You get your confidence and intuition back by trusting yourself, by being militantly on your own side. You need to trust yourself,… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Being on a book tour is like being on the seesaw when you're a little kid. The excitement is in having someone… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
Don’t underestimate this gift of finding a place in the writing world: if you really work at describing creatively on paper the… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
The worst time in any writer's life is the two months before publication. ALL writers become mental and pathetic, even those of… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
The writer is a person who is standing apart, like the cheese in 'The Farmer in the Dell' standing there alone but… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
If you always dreamed of writing a novel or a memoir, and you used to love to write, and were pretty good… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
My parents, and librarians along the way, taught me about the space between words; about the margins, where so many juicy moments… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
No matter how people mess with you or let you down, or how you let yourself down, a good book means that… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
I guess he'll have to figure out someday that he is supposed to have this dark side, that it is part of what it… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
Why couldn't Jesus command us to obsess over everything, to try to control and manipulate people, to try not to breathe at all, or… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
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… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
And yet, I do believe there is ultimately meaning in the chaos, and also in the doldrums. What I resist is not the truth… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
Raising a child, whether or not it is yours, is like Nautilus of the heart and soul. — Anne Lamott Copy Share
“I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer. Hope begins in… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
“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… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
We are going to die, as is everyone we adore - I hate this! But the question is, how do we live as women… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
“You will go through your life thinking there was a day in second grade that you must have missed, when the grown-ups came in… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
“You begin to string words together like beads to tell a story. You are desperate to communicate, to edify or entertain, to preserve moments… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
“You lose the known package of your nice organized self almost instantly here. Overeating is one way back, the way it is at funerals… — Anne Lamott Copy Share
