Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott
Anne Lamottis an American novelist and non-fiction writer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth10 April 1954
CitySan Francisco, CA
CountryUnited States of America
absurdity-of-life dancing laughing
When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.
crazy mind machines
I am learning slowly to bring my crazy pinball-machine mind back to this place...
mind trying quiet
and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear...
spiritual rain odds
Can you imagine the hopelessness of trying to live a spiritual life when you’re secretly looking up at the skies not for illumination or direction, but to gauge, miserably, the odds of rain?
hurt teenager tough
Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.
jesus dark sense-of-humor
I have a very dark sense of humor. I swear. I have a very playful relationship with Jesus.
children typewriters trying
You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. ... You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on your computer and bring up the right file. ... You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. ... Then your mental illnesses arrive at the desk like your sickest, most secretive relatives. And they pull up chairs in a semicircle around the computer, and they try to be quiet but you know they are there with their weird coppery breath, leering at you behind your back.
real good-day writing
The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.
lying believe self
They believe that if they do get published, a wonderful new life is in store. It will turn out that deep down they are really valuable people and will have lots of money from now on and really cool people like Ethan Hawke will be dropping by all the time. But it's a lie. Being a published writer will make them long to be ONLY as mentally ill as they are now. Their current level of obsession and doubt and self-loathing will look like the good old days. Honest.
grandparent church sometimes
I went to church with my grandparents sometimes and I loved it.
drinking waiting rats
Charles had once remarked that holding onto a resentment was like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.
writing people world
I write because writing is the gift God has given me to help people in the world.
prayer helping answered-prayers
'Help' is a prayer that is always answered.
four nonfiction six
I've written six novels and four pieces of nonfiction, so I don't really have a genre these days.