Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life Quotes
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.
You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind.
Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?
Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.
You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.
For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.
Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.
A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way.
You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better.
Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
Look back on your life and find something small that made a big difference.
Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them.
I like to think that Henry James said his classic line, "A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost, " while looking for his glasses, and that they were on top of his head.
What if you wake up some day, and you’re 65… and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life?
You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander.
When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are.
I want people who write to crash or dive below the surface, where life is so cold and confusing and hard to see.Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth.