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.
quotes in library
Quotes by Anne Lamott
106 quotes“To feel everything is the price of being alive. Pay it.”
“Your problem is not the problem. Your reaction is the problem.”
“You don't always have to attend every argument you're invited to.”
“There are no extra people. Everyone is here for a reason.”
“Even the people who annoy you are bringing you a teaching.”
“In every difficult relationship, you are also being taught.”
“Resentment is poison you take expecting the other person to die.”
“You are pre-approved.”
“There is nothing you have to do. There is nowhere you have to go. Be where you are.”
“Most of what we are looking for, we already have.”
“To want what you have is the secret of happiness.”
“Look. Be amazed. Tell the truth.”
“There are no shortcuts, but there are paths.”
“Get a good night's sleep. Eat a vegetable. Take a walk. Most of life is that simple.”
“Most of life is bowls and tables and kindness.”
“You are loved beyond measure. You will not always feel it. It will be true anyway.”
“In every season, hold to the fundamental kindness underneath.”
“When in doubt, choose the kinder thing.”
“To be wrong is human. To stay wrong is willful.”
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