Anne Lamott Quotes

If honesty is the key to intimacy, it means we don't have to be perfect and we don't have to pretend to be perfect.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

Honesty and vulnerability endear us to people; they don't endanger us in our relationship.

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.

If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.

What is a friend? I will tell you... it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.

It takes people a while to trust you.

I think you first have to feel 100% comfortable with the person that you are with. I have written in sessions where I am just meeting the person for the first time and it is extremely difficult.

You can't develop full relationships with anybody unless you're fully honest about who you are.

I feel like the more real we are, the more people will respect that.

You can't be afraid to be honest and to be yourself. We all have imperfections and fall short at some point. Showing your human side creates a sensitivity, openness and trust. That's the beginning of the demise in a relationship - not being honest and not being you.

When people can be vulnerable to one another then you're kind of giving people permission to really be yourself and not try to impress all the time and you get into more interesting work. You're being real and you're not afraid to mess up or seem weird.

Remember, intimacy increases with honesty. Share less to keep people away and more to draw them closer.

We like other people to show themselves to us as they really are.

Be real and be unashamed, even of your faults. I do truly know what my husband is made of and vice versa.

Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.

I don't have to edit myself. I get to be me, warts and all, and that's ultimately what people want, and to trust each other implicitly.

You can't really control how people are going to feel about you; all you can really do is be yourself. Because if you seduce somebody, and you seduce them by pretending to be a certain way, once they are seduced they are going to find that you are not that way. And then you have to maintain an image that's not real, so you really screw yourself. The best is to be yourself and hope they like you.

I don't pretend to be perfect. I want people to see me as I am.

For a marriage relationship to flourish, there must be intimacy. It takes an enormous amount of courage to say to your spouse, 'This is me. I'm not proud of it - in fact, I'm a little embarrassed by it - but this is who I am.

Be willing to share all of who you are. So many of us want a partner, but we're not willing to show all of us. That's why we have a weave, we're wearing Spanx and everything is 'fine.' If you're not willing to let your partner see your cellulite or know your biggest fears, then you aren't really ready to share yourself.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

Truth makes love possible; love makes truth bearable.

me: you know what sucks about love? o.w.g.: what? me: that it's so tied to the truth.

Most people believe vulnerability is weakness. But really vulnerability is Courage. We must ask ourselves...are we willing to show up and be seen.