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Author: Anne Lamott
Quotes of Author: Anne Lamott
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  1. Anne Lamott _ Operating Instructions: A

    I have these secret pangs of shame about being single, like I wasn't good enough to get a husband. Rita reminded me of something I'd told her once, about the five rules of the world as arrived at by this Catholic priest named Tom Weston. The first rule, he says, is that you must not have anything wrong with you or anything different. The second one is that if you do have something wrong with you, you must get over it as soon as possible. The third rule is that if you can't get over it, you must pretend that you have. The fourth rule is that if you can't even pretend that you have, you shouldn't show up. You should stay home, because it's hard for everyone else to have you around. And the fifth rule is that if you are going to insist on showing up, you should at least have the decency to feel ashamed.So Rita and I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.
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  2. Anne Lamott _ Traveling Mercies: Some

    When you make friends with fear, it can't rule you.
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  3. Anne Lamott _ Plan B: Further Thoughts on

    Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole.
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  4. Anne Lamott _ Bird by Bird

    You get your confidence and intuition back by trusting yourself, by being militantly on your own side. You need to trust yourself, especially on a first draft, where amid the anxiety and self-doubt, there should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.
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  5. Anne Lamott _ Bird by Bird: Some

    Mostly things are not that way, that simple and pure, with so much focus given to each syllable of life as life sings itself. But that kind of attention is the prize. To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass--seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one.
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  6. Anne Lamott _ Bird by Bird: Some

    When what we see catches us off guard, and when we write it as realistically and openly as possible, it offers hope. You look around and say, Wow, there's that same mockingbird; there's that woman in the red hat again. The woman in the red hat is about hope because she's in it up to her neck, too, yet every day she puts on that crazy red hat and walks to town.
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  7. Anne Lamott _ Imperfect Birds

    We're all afraid of the same stuff. Mostly we're afraid that we're secretly not okay, that we're disgusting, or frauds, or about to be diagnosed with cancer. ... We want to teach you how to quiet the yammer ... how you can create comfort, inside and outside, how you can get warm, how you can feed yourself. And even learn to get through silence. ... There is a wilderness inside you, and a banquet. Both. {p. 253}
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  8. Anne Lamott _ Traveling Mercies: Some

    The clipping said forgiveness meant that God is for giving, and that we are here for giving too, and that to withold love or blessings is to be completely delusional.
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  9. Anne Lamott _ Bird by Bird: Some

    Becoming a better writer is going to help you become a better reader, and is the real payoff.
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  10. Anne Lamott _ Traveling Mercies: Some

    I'll live as well, as deeply, as madly as I can--until I die.
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  11. Anne Lamott _ Traveling Mercies: Some

    These are pictures of the people in my family where we look like the most awkward and desperate folk you ever saw, poster children for the human condition.
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  12. Anne Lamott _ Grace (Eventually): Thoughts

    And that almost everyone was struggling to wake up, to be loved, and not feel so afraid all the time. That's what the cars, degrees, booze, and drugs were about.
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