Anne Lamott Quotes

You have to surrender to your mediocrity, and just write. Because it's hard, really hard, to write even a crappy book. But it's better to write a book that kind of sucks rather than no book at all, as you wait around to magically become Faulkner. No one is going to write your book for you and you can't write anybody's book but your own.

The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.

I don't really think it comes as a shock to every writer if somebody in their family is mad at them. Yes, it's very upsetting. But it's inherent in the process of trying to make sense of one's life, which is what I think is perhaps at the bottom of writing at all.

If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.

I am always trying to write.

Writing gave me a life.

I have always found writing pleasant and don't understand what people mean by 'throes of creation.'

When you write ,it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity.

Writing is like paying myself a formal visit.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. —Joe Bunch

When I write, I make discoveries about my feelings.

The thing about writing is that if you have the impulse, you will find the time.

You can't be a writer if you don't write, it's just that simple.

Writing is the act of discovery.

Writing or making anything-a poem, a bird feeder, a chocolate cake-has self-respect in it. You're working. You're trying. You're not lying down on the ground, having given up.

Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.

If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.

It's been hard for me to not write, and that's the only process I can speak to I guess, it's so compulsive and I need to do it all the time that sometimes I make myself not do it so I can actually tend to my life.

But unless we are creators, we are not fully alive.

While I was an addict, I didn't write anything. I didn't have the attention span or the will.

We stayed at home to write, to consolidate our outstretched selves.

How do you write? You write, man, you write, that's how, and you do it the way the old English walnut tree puts forth leaf and fruit every year by the thousands. . . . If you practice an art faithfully, it will make you wise, and most writers can use a little wising up.

In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.

That's what writing is. It's moving past your fear.