Ann Lamott is a well known American novelist and non-fiction writer, and a well-known teacher political activist and public speaker. Ann Lamott’s non-fiction works are mostly autobiographical and with strong themes of self-deprecating humor that covers subjects such as single motherhood, alcoholism, and Christianity.You can find her books here.
Ann Lamott attracts her fans because of her irresistible sense of humor, her outspoken views on matters such as her unusual Christianity faith, her left-of-center politics, and her deeply felt insights. She attended Drew School and later studied for some time at Goucher College, but did not finish her degree. Ann Lamott started writing for a newspaper while at Goucher College and that is where she realized that writing was meant for her.
We gathered the most inspirational quotes from Ann Lamott to inspire you today. Enjoy!
Ann Lamott Quotes
1. “Being on a book tour is like being on the seesaw when you’re a little kid. The excitement is in having someone to play with, and in rising up in the air, but then you’re at the mercy of those holding you down, and if it’s your older brother, or Paul Wolfowitz, they leap up, so that you crash down and get hurt.”– Ann Lamott.
2. “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.”– Ann Lamott.
3. “I feel incredibly successful. I make a living as a writer and am able to help support a big family, my church, my bleeding-heart causes.”– Ann Lamott.
4. “I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”– Ann Lamott.
5. “I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”– Ann Lamott.
6. “Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?”– Ann Lamott.
7. “So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human? I’m not sure. That’s my answer: I’m not sure.”– Ann Lamott.
8. “Sam said to me the other day, “I love you like 20 tyrannosauruses on 20 mountaintops,” and this is the exact same way in which I love him.”– Ann Lamott.
9. “Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.”– Ann Lamott.
10. “Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down.”– Ann Lamott.
11. “I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer. Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”– Ann Lamott.
12. “Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don’t drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor’s yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.”– Ann Lamott.
13. “You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are feeding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.”– Ann Lamott.
14. “I didn’t need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”– Ann Lamott.
15. “But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.”– Ann Lamott.
16. “I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it’s over, it’s over.”– Ann Lamott.
17. “If I were going to begin practicing the presence of God for the first time today, it would help to begin by admitting the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.”– Ann Lamott.
18. “I’m kind of a gossip hound, but watching the media whip the small fires into giant forest fires so that they can cover the result is infuriating.”– Ann Lamott.
19. “Mothering has been the richest experience of my life, but I am still opposed to Mother’s Day. It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents.”– Ann Lamott.
20. “I am not writing to try and convert people to fundamental Christianity. I am just trying to share my experience, strength and hope, that someone who is as messed up and neurotic and scarred and scared can be fully accepted by our dear Lord, no questions asked.”– Ann Lamott.
21. “I remember staring at my son endlessly when he was an infant, stunned by his very existence, wondering where on earth he had come from.”– Ann Lamott.
22. “I smiled back at her. I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”– Ann Lamott.
23. “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.”– Ann Lamott.
24. “My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.”– Ann Lamott.
25. “Bananas are great, as I believe them to be the only known cure for existential dread. Also, Mother Teresa said that in India, a woman dying in the street will share her banana with anyone who needs it, whereas in America, people amass and hoard as many bananas as they can to sell for an exorbitant profit. So half of them go bad, anyway.”– Ann Lamott.
26. “You want to give me chocolate and flowers? That would be great. I love them both. I just don’t want them out of guilt, and I don’t want them if you’re not going to give them to all the people who helped mother our children.”– Ann Lamott.
27. “Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”– Ann Lamott.
28. “Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone’s very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.”– Ann Lamott.
29. “Grief, as I read somewhere once, is a lazy Susan. One day it is heavy and underwater, and the next day it spins and stops at loud and rageful, and the next day at wounded keening, and the next day numbness, silence.”– Ann Lamott.
30. “Jealousy has always been my cross, the weakness and woundedness in me that has most often caused me to feel ugly and unlovable, like the Bad Seed.”– Ann Lamott.
31. “one thing about having a baby is that each step of the way you simply cannot imagine loving him any more than you already do, because you are bursting with love, loving as much as you are humanly capable of- and then you do, you love him even more.”– Ann Lamott.
32. “She felt as if the mosaic she had been assembling out of life’s little shards got dumped to the ground, and there was no way to put it back together.”– Ann Lamott.
33. “We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. The writer’s job is to turn the unspeakable into words – not just into any words, but if we can, into rhythm and blues.”– Ann Lamott.
34. “I think that is why we stay close to our families, no matter how neurotic the members, how deeply annoying or dull- because when people have seen you at your worst, you don’t have to put on the mask as much.”– Ann Lamott.
35. “There is nothing more touching to me then a family picture where everyone is trying to look his or her best, but you can see what a mess they all really are.”– Ann Lamott.
36. “Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.”– Ann Lamott.
37. “One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline…. But also every single day a kid needs a break.”– Ann Lamott.
38. “For me, Jesus is my cleft in the rock. He is my safest friend, my safe totally loving accepting big brother.”– Ann Lamott.
39. “I’ve known for years that resentments don’t hurt the person we resent, but they do hurt us.”– Ann Lamott.
40. “Your experiences will be yours alone. But truth and best friendship will rarely if ever disappoint you.”– Ann Lamott.
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Anne Lamott Videos – 12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing
A few days before she turned 61, writer Anne Lamott decided to share her thoughts with the world. In this popular TedX talk, she dives into the nuances of being a human who lives in a confusing, beautiful, emotional world, offering her characteristic life-affirming wisdom and humor on family, writing, the meaning of God, death and more.
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Summary
Ann Lamott does not write to appease a particular group, but she addresses herself to anyone who has had difficulties in his/her life. She is there for individuals who understand that pettiness, sarcasm, doubt, and self-centeredness can co-exist peacefully. Also see our quotes about sarcasm!
According to her quotes, she uses humor to weave through parenthood, faith, loss, and the cancer diagnosis of her best friend. The quotes about Ann Lamott will motivate you if you feel low about your life.
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Image Credit: Zboralski, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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