Quotes by Anne Lamott

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.

Some people wont go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.

The worst part about celebrating another birthday is the shock that youre only as well as you are.

The opposite of faith is not doubt: It is certainty. It is madness. You can tell you have created God in your own image when it turns out that he or she hates all the same people you do.

The first holy truth in God 101 is that men and women of true faith have always had to accept the mystery of Gods identity and love and ways. I hate that, but its the truth.

The earth is rocky and full of roots; its clay, and it seems doomed and polluted, but you dig little holes for the ugly shriveled bulbs, throw in a handful of poppy seeds, and cover it all over, and you know youll never see it again - its death and clay and shrivel, and your hands are nicked from the rocks, your nails black with soil.

Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you.

I love readings and my readers, but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright, and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud, and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful, but Im annoying, and a phony.

Mothers are supposed to listen and, afterward, to respond with some wisdom and perspective, but these things were not my mothers strong suit.

I was raised with no religious training or influence. Except the influence was to be a moral and ethical person at the secular level. And to be a peace marcher, an activist for civil rights, peace and justice.

We must not inflict life on children who will be resented we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that hed had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brothers shoulder, and said, Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

“You can safely assume youve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

“...the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.”

“Niels Bohr wrote, ‘The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth.”

“Hope is not about proving anything. Its about choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us.”

“I dont remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you dont even know exist until you love a child.”

“We all know were going to die; whats important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.”