I was wholly invested in my friendships. I might have tested them sometimes, but only to reassure myself that they were permanent. A mistake, of course.

There are times in your life when, despite the steel weight of your memories and the sadness that seems to lie at your feet like a shadow, you suddenly and strangely feel perfectly okay.

The living carry us inside them like pearls. We survive only so long as they remember us.

People who read Anne Lamott, like people who read Anne Rice, believe that tragedy is romantic, but the people who read Anne Lamott believe it ironically.

There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.

I write out of gratitude for all the books I have loved over the years.

The books you love best - those are the immensity of the sea.

She had the same responsibility as everybody else did: to live as softly as she could in the world.

Worry is a mean-faced dwarf who beats on your heart like a kettledrum.

I always try to stay as quiet as possible about a book until it's finished.

I had always been the kind of boy who was quick to laugh and quick to cry.

There is risk and truth to yourselves and the world before you.

You are not, though, forgiving so as to let others off with things. You are forgiving so that you can empower yourself to get over it and become strong.

But then I was young, and to be young means to undertake to demolish the world and to have the gall to wish to erect a new and better one in its place.

Real-life duties eat valuable writing time.

I think I've heard somebody say that I was a well-dressed golfer. I guess that has something to do with the fact that a lot of people who play golf don't dress very well.

Grieve not because thou understand-not life's mystery; behind the veil is concealed many a delight.

There is something to be said about a guy who is attractive and doesn't know it. I hate men who are overconfident.

If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.

I don't get depressed. When I feel an attack, I withdraw. I disappear, I replenish, and then I come back.

People have doubted me and criticized me my whole life, and that's why I'm the way I am.