Quotes by Anne Lamott

She lived in fear of ifonic endings. (91)

With THC in your system, you dont dream. And you need to. Otherwise it is like losing one of your senses. Dreams are part of your wholeness. ... when youre dreaming, youre not the one calling the shots. So its a reprieve. ... the dream world had rules in it. You couldnt read a clock in your dreams. It would not give you the time. If the lights were on in a room, you could not turn them off in a dream. ... in indigenous tribes all over the world, the dream world was like church. [p. 247]

She slept deeply, but as usual, she did not dream. It had been months; none of them was dreaming anymore. [p. 227]

I have become the woman I hardly dared imagine I could be. There are parts I don’t love—until a few years ago, I had no idea that you could have cellulite on your stomach—but not only do I get along with me most of the time now, I am militantly and maternally on my own side. Left to my own devices, would I trade this for firm thighs, fewer wrinkles, a better memory? You bet I would. That is why it’s such a blessing that I’m not left to my own devices.

For too long, and despite what people told me, I had fallen for what the culture said about beauty, youth, features, heights, weights, hair textures, upper arms.

Most of us don’t notice how great we look until years, even decades later. Not long ago, I was looking at photos of myself at various ages and weights—way before the neckular deterioration began, way before the fanny pack of menopause—and I could see how gorgeous I must have looked to everyone else.

Theres a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, Why on our hearts, and not in them? The rabbi answered, Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.

When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.

You want to avoid at all costs drawing your characters on those that already exist in other works of fiction. You must learn about people from people, not from what you read. Your reading should confirm what you’ve observed in the world.

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Certainty is missing the point entirely.

It is hard to remember that you are a cherished spiritual being when youre burping up apple fritters and Cheetos.

Resentments make even the best of us feel superior.

We learn from pain that some of the things we thought were castles turn out to be prisons, and we desperately want out, but even though we built them, we cant find the door. Yet maybe if you ask God for help in knowing which direction to face, youll have a moment of intuition. Maybe youll see at least one next right step you can take.

A good marriage is where both people feel like theyre getting the better end of the deal.

A good marriage is supposed to be one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal.

Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyones very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.

In paintings, music, poetry, architecture, we feel the elusive energy that moves through us and the air and the ground all the time, that usually disperses and turns chaotic in our busy-ness and distractedness and moodiness. Artists channel it, corral it, make it visible to the rest of us. The best works of art are like semaphores of our experience, signaling what we didnt know was true but do now.

When you dont have enough or you run out, you feel in your core that the leak has begun and there will be no end to the leakage. And this makes you feel like a chump. Whereas having some money gives you the conviction that youre not naked in the howling wind, even though you basically are, existentially.

Usually if you pray from the heart, you get an answer—the phone rings or the mail comes, and light gets in through the cracks, so you can see the next right thing to do. That’s all you need.