Quotessence
Home / Authors / Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingIfsPeopleThinkingTryingKnowsWayWorldHelpingFeelsChildrenGivingNeedsHeartLittlesBelieveSelfWantLooksMother

Famous Anne Lamott Quotes

“I know that if I feel any deprivation or fear [about money], the solution is to give. The solution is to go find some mothers on the streets of San Raphael and give them tens and twenties and mail off another $50 to Doctors Without Borders to use for the refugees in Kosovo. Because I know that giving is the way we can feel abundant. Giving is the way that we fill ourselves up.... For me the way to fill up is through service and sharing and getting myself to give more than I feel comfortable giving.”

IfsKnowsWayGivingFeelsUseMotherStreetsComfortableSolutionsDoctorsTwentiesBordersMailRefugeeDeprivationRaphaelKosovoDoctors Without Borders
Author:Anne Lamott
Create image

“Having a child as a single mother was a crucible - maybe this is true for all parents. I got rid of so much stuff that didn't really matter in the scheme of things-like throwing stuff out of an airplane that kept me flying too low. What was left was essential, i.e. not a lot of extraneous stuff that had kept me busy and people-pleasing. I just didn't have the luxury of wasting my life force on so much stupidity and distraction. That made me strong.”

PeopleChildrenMadeMatterMotherLeftStrongForceStuffParentEssentialsLowsBusyStupidityFlyingLuxuryThrowingDistractionAirplaneSchemesSingle MotherCrucible
Author:Anne Lamott
Create image

“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.”

PeopleNeedsBelieveSaidAmericaMotherI BelieveHalfKnownShareStreetsDyingIndiaSellsProfitCuresExistentialismDreadExistentialBananasTeresa
Author:Anne Lamott
Create image

“My mother might find a thin gold chain at the back of a drawer, wadded into an impossibly tight knot, and give it to me to untangle. It would have a shiny, sweaty smell, and excite me: Gold chains linked you to the great fairy tales and myths, to Arabia, and India; to the great weight of the world, but lighter than a feather.”

WorldGivingMightMotherGoldWeightIndiaSmellMythTalesChainsFairyFairy TaleLinkedFeathersKnotsArabiaLightersDrawersWeight Of The World
Author:Anne Lamott
Create image

“Now. Maybe you think it is arrogant or self centered, or ridiculous for me to believe that God bothered to wiggle a cheap bolt out of my new used car because he or she needed to keep me away for a few days until just the moment when my old friend most needed me to help her mother move into whatever comes next. Maybe nothing conscious helped to stall me so that I would be there when I could be most useful. Or maybe it did. I’ll never know for sure. And anyway, it doesn’t really matter.”

ThinkingKnowsBelieveSelfMatterMomentsHelpingWould BeMovingUsedMotherNextCarNeededConsciousRidiculousArrogantBotheredSelf CenteredOld FriendsBoltsUsed Car
Book:Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Create image

“There is something so tender about this to me, about being willing to have your makeup wash off, your eyes tear up, your nose start to run. Its tender partly because it harkens back to infancy, to your mother washing your face with love and lots or water, tending to you, making you clean all over again.”

EyeRunningFacesMotherWaterTearsWillingCleanNosesMakeupYour FaceWashingInfancy
Book:Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Create image

“Intelligence, goodness, humanity, excitement, serenity. Over time, these are the things that change the musculature of your face, as do laughter, and animation, and especially whatever peace you can broker with the person inside. It's furrow, pinch, and judgement that make us look older - our mothers were right. They said that if you made certain faces, they would stick, and they do. But our mothers forgot that faces of kindness and integrity stick as well.”

IfsWellsLooksPersonsMadeSaidFacesMotherCertainHumanityKindnessIntegrityGoodnessLaughterSticksJudgementExcitementYour FaceSerenityThey SaidAnimationBrokers
Author:Anne Lamott
Create image

“And we've read scary books and watched scary movies and TV shows together. He's met monsters, ghouls, and demons on the page and on the screen. There's nothing like watching Anaconda with your best friend or lying in bed next to your mother reading Roald Dahl, because that way you get to explore dark stuff safely. You get to laugh with it, to step out on the vampire's dance floor and take him for a spin, and then step back into your life. When you make friends with fear, it can't rule you.”

WayBookShowsTogetherLyingMotherReadingNextFearStuffDarkStepsLaughingTvsMetsBedPagesScaryScreensMonstersVampireDemonTv ShowsYour Best FriendGhoulsDance FloorScary Books
Book:Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Create image