Anne Lamott
American novelist, memoirist, and one of the most beloved contemporary voices on faith, recovery, writing, and the practice of being human. Born in 1954 in San Francisco and raised by atheist intellectual parents, she came to her own idiosyncratic Presbyterian faith through addiction recovery and the slow work of single motherhood. Her books — Bird by Bird (1994, the most-quoted contemporary book on writing), Operating Instructions, Traveling Mercies, Plan B, Help Thanks Wow (2012), Hallelujah Anyway, Almost Everything, Dusk Night Dawn, and most recently Somehow (2024) — have brought a generation of readers to a form of contemplative life that doesn't require leaving New Jersey or Oakland or your messy kitchen. Her three essential prayers — Help, Thanks, and Wow — have become contemporary spiritual shorthand.
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Quotes by Anne Lamott
106 quotes“I've heard it said that every wave is the ocean. So is every drop, every bubble, every mist.”
“To love yourself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
“My priest friend Tom says that hope is to expect with confidence that the future is rich with possibility.”
“Wow. Wow. Wow. Three of the most underused syllables in the English language.”
“Faith is not certainty. Faith is the practice of showing up.”
“You can either practice being right or practice being kind.”
“The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty.”
“My mind is like a kitten in a tornado. Help me sit still.”
“Tell me what you're going to do with your one wild and precious life — and then go do it.”
“Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself.”
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”
“Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force.”
“Joy is the best makeup.”
“Don't get even. Get over it. Get over yourself.”
“Earth is forgiveness school.”
“Sometimes grace works like water wings when you forget how to swim.”
“You will be amazed at how much your hidden inheritance, your gifts, will support you when you give yourself permission to use them.”
“My friend Father Tom said: A new beginning is just a new way of meeting yourself.”
“Even now, hold to hope.”
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