Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Anne Lamott

Quote by Anne Lamott

“Then I started to write about my envy. I got to look in some cold dark corners, see what was there, shine a little light on what we all have in common. Sometimes this human stuff is slimy and pathetic--jealousy especially so--but better to feel it and talk about it and walk through it than to spend a lifetime being silently poisoned.”

Quote by Anne Lamott

Book:Bird by Bird
Create image

Work

Bird by Bird

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott is an American novelist born on April 10, 1954. Her works are known for their humor, directness, and profound emotional depth, primarily exploring themes of family, faith, and self-discovery. more

You May Also Like

“I don't need the aggravation of my staff members avoiding each other when the sex goes stale. And believe me, it will." I want to laugh. I want to slap his face. As it is, my breathing comes on quick and fast. "Which means North is really only off limits while I work for you. Good to know." A streak of red spears across the tops of Macon's cheeks, and I swear the man growls. It rumbles in that wide chest of his as his moth tightens. "He's not for you, Delilah. Unless, of course, you're into having Sam's leftovers." As if I've been slapped, my breath hitches. Oh, that was low. Not only to me but to North as well. My face feels tight and hot. And for an instant, something that looks like guilt flickers in Macon's brown eyes, but it's quickly smothered by stubborn self-righteousness and a pugnacious lift of his chin. "Well then," I manage, "I guess that leaves you out of the running too.”

JealousyEnemies To LoversBickeringLow Blow
Book:Dear Enemy
Create image

“All his feelings and all his being were shaken to their depths, and he came to know that terrible torment which, by way of a striking exception, sometimes occurs in nature, when a weak talent strains to show itself on too grand a scale and fails; that torment which gives birth to great things in a youth, but, in passing beyond the border of dream, turns into a fruitless yearning; that dreadful torment which makes a man capable of terrible evildoing. A terrible envy possessed him, an envy bordering on rage. The bile rose in him when he saw some work that bore the stamp of talent. He ground his teeth and devoured it with the eyes of a basilisk.”

EnvyJealousy
Book:The Mysterious Portrait
Create image

“You're just different from the other boys I've brought home. Different in what way? Well, you're not exactly a boy. I'm old, you mean? No, not old. But you're, you know, a man. I hate that there've been others, said Jude, and I was so surprised at the fact of his jealousy that I apologized. Why would he be jealous, I thought, when I had never loved or been loved this way before? It wasn't like this, I said. It wasn't ever like this. Tell me that you've never had anyone else. I want you to pretend. Okay, I said, laughing. I've never been with anyone else. Happy? Tell me I'm your first, he said, his voice low and his hands moving across my blouse. Tell me that you've never been touched. I'm untouched. Chaste, a clean slate. But you want it.”

LoveSexRelationshipsIntimacyJealousyAge Difference
Book:Thirst for Salt
Create image