Latest Anne Lamott Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Being a parent is absolutely exhausting and draining, along with all the joy and love.

  Anne Lamott

  Joy, Parent, And Love

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

• Raising a child, whether or not it is yours, is like Nautilus of the heart and soul.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, Heart, Soul

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

• Having a child as a single mother was a crucible - maybe this is true for all parents. I got rid of so much stuff that didn't really matter in the scheme of things-like throwing stuff out of an airplane that kept me flying too low. What was left was essential, i.e. not a lot of extraneous stuff that had kept me busy and people-pleasing. I just didn't have the luxury of wasting my life force on so much stupidity and distraction. That made me strong.

  Anne Lamott

  Mother, Strong, Children

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

• I do for myself exactly what I would do for you - make a lovely cup of tea, or a hot bath, or go buy myself a fabulous pair of socks. I believe that you take the action, and THEN the insight follows - I do loving things for me, stroke my own shoulder, put myself down for a short nap, and the insight follows: that I am a wild precious woman, a human merely being, as e e cummings put it, deserving of respect, tenderness, protection, delight, and solidarity. And that is what Home looks like for me now.

  Anne Lamott

  Believe, Home, Naps

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• I knew that the world was a harsh place, and my family was a mess, and even though I danced as fast as I could, I did not feel welcome, did not feel the great Shalom. THIS WORLD WAS NEVER A GOOD MATCH FOR ME. But my belief was that there was a loving magical energy in the world - seen in Nature's beauty and awesomeness, my best girl and women friends, art, music.

  Anne Lamott

  Girl, Art, Energy

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• That's about 90 percent of my theological life - radical self-care. Put your own oxygen mask on first. I watch the self-talk that goes through my mind, and if I am being critical with myself, I shake myself out of it.

  Anne Lamott

  Self, Oxygen, Mind

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• My theology is based on what I tell my Sunday-school kids - that they are loved and chosen, AS IS, now, today. That the moment is holy, sacred, and all there is - and that we are only as sick as our secrets. So TELL IT.

  Anne Lamott

  School, Kids, Sunday

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• Greasy food is so comforting when you are hungover.

  Anne Lamott

  Comforting

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• The stuff I write about is pretty universal, the things my closest friends and I talk about - our anxiety about being here on this scary planet, during these scary times, as vulnerable as kittens, having lost so many people I couldn't live without.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, People, Anxiety

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• I had NO interest in being a theologian, especially not a Christian, as I had been raised by progressive atheists. We bowed down every morning to the golden calf of the New York Times, Noam Chomsky, Hannah Arendt. I tried to get my parents to respect and nourish me, let alone delight in me, so even though I secretly loved and believed in the Divine Something - Goodness, Good Orderly Direction, Gift of Desperation, the Cosmic Muffin - I wasn't ready yet to commit myself to the study of a higher power.

  Anne Lamott

  Christian, Morning, Atheist

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• We are going to die, as is everyone we adore - I hate this! But the question is, how do we live as women and men in the face of this? Why do we let ourselves be so distracted and obsessed by meaningless B.S. in light of having one short, precious life? When are we going to wake up and be fully alive to each other and nature and magic and wonder and Life with a capital L? When will we stop hitting the snooze button? And then, how alive are we willing to be?

  Anne Lamott

  Hate, Men, Light

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• I don't see myself as a deep philosopher. The things I write about tend to be what we all have to face, or consider, or experience, that I talk about with my friends and brothers. It's universal stuff, told in my own voice, my own details and truth, which is all I have to offer.

  Anne Lamott

  Brother, Writing, Voice

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

• I find most famous Christians to be full of themselves and of prejudice and self-loathing, masquerading as devout religious belief. I find all fundamentalism to be terrifying and very destructive.

  Anne Lamott

  Christian, Religious, Self

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• Writing is how I communicate my deepest beliefs, and what I hope are helpful observations about our dual citizenship, as children of God, as regular old mixed-up, worried, flawed, precious human beings.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, Writing, Belief

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• I am a terrible and lazy Christian. I do not believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. I just skip about a third of it.

  Anne Lamott

  Christian, Believe, Lazy

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• I do not understand how deeply people seem to like my work - but I love that people feel I have helped them through hardships, and also have shared my experience of living a more spiritual and present life. It's so great to be able to make people laugh, because this is so often how we get our selves back.

  Anne Lamott

  Spiritual, Self, People

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• I love silence. I seek and create it at every opportunity. I need it to work.

  Anne Lamott

  Opportunity, Silence, Needs

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• I spend most of my time alone, because I so value and thrive in the quiet. Heaven.

  Anne Lamott

  Heaven, Quiet, Alone Time

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• Anything you say from your heart to God is a prayer. But "why" is rarely a useful question. When Job keeps asking God why he has had such loss and suffering, God says, "You wouldn't understand." I always want to know why, and I almost never have a good answer.

  Anne Lamott

  Jobs, Prayer, Heart

  "Interview with Anne Lamott, Author of Help, Thanks, Wow". Interview with Jana Llewellyn, www.friendsjournal.org. January 30, 2013.

• I got one of the five golden tickets to be a writer, and I take that seriously. I don't love my own work at all, but I love my own self. I love that I've been given the chance to capture the stories that come through me.

  Anne Lamott

  Self, Stories, Golden

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.

• I can never tell what I'm doing when I'm in the middle of publication because I have no confidence. I have terrible self-esteem, along with boundless narcissism.

  Anne Lamott

  Self Esteem, Narcissism, Middle

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.

• I believe that discipline and self-love are the total secrets to freedom.

  Anne Lamott

  Believe, Self, Discipline

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.

• My dad taught me that to be a writer is a decision and a habit. It's not anything lofty, and it doesn't have that much to do with inspiration. You have to develop the habit of being a certain way with yourself. You do it at the debt of honor.

  Anne Lamott

  Dad, Inspiration, Decision

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.

• I'm very successful, but there are 50,000 general interest books published every year. If you don't want to read mine, there are others.

  Anne Lamott

  Book, Successful, Years

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.

• There are these people who keep taking you in and feeding you and loving you and making the world a tiny bit safer than it feels. People have community and family, but existentially we are deeply isolated.

  Anne Lamott

  People, Loving You, Community

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. March 2012.