Quotes from Anne Lamott

The movement of grace toward gratitude brings us from the package of self-obsessed madness to a spiritual awakening. Gratitude is peace.

The beginning of forgiveness is often exhaustion. You're pooped; thank God.

God gives us Her own self. Left to my own devices, I would prefer answers. This is why it is good that I am in charge of so little: the pets, the shopping, the garden.

I quit my last real job, as a writer at a magazine, when I was twenty-one. That was the moment when I lost my place of prestige on the fast track, and slowly, millimeter by millimeter, I started to get found, to discover who I had been born to be, instead of the impossibly small package, all tied up tightly in myself, that I had agreed to be.

It's all here, everything we seek and need, inside us.

What those people think of me is none of my business.

death is not the enemy; snakes are. And cheese: it is addictive and irresistible. I have had three kinds so far today.

The first draft is the down draft - you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft - you fix it up.

If you are a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how you spend your days—listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you've taken in, all that you've overheard, and you turn it into gold.

My deepest belief is that to live as if we're dying can set us free. Dying people teach you to pay attention and to forgive and not to sweat the small things.

clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground—you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip.

it really is easier to experience spiritual connection when your life is in the process of coming apart. When things break up and fences fall over, desperation and powerlessness slink in, which turns out to be good: humility and sweetness often arrive in your garden not long after.

Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.

I know a person with a Ph.D. who goes to a church based on Star Wars: May the force be with you.

Awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.

We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. Otherwise, you'll just be rearranging furniture in rooms you've already been in.

The development of relationship creates plot.

Find out what each character cares most in the world because then you will have discovered what's at stake.

Langston Hughes: Gather out of star-dust Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust Not for sale.

For the climax, there must be a killing or a healing or a domination.

It all made me think of Eugene O'Neill's line, "Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.

Getting all your addictions under control is like trying to put an octopus to bed

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.

Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. T. S. ELIOT