Anne Lamott Quotes

Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.

When I'm an audience member I do not want to go and see something that I already know, I want to see something that I don't know. I want to be surprised and stimulated to think about something. I want the magic. I want to be in a situation of uncertainty; that's what excites me.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing.

Good writing will bring you to places you don't even expect sometimes.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

Even today, I am still very child-like while designing. It's a bit like Christmas - each of your designs you create is like unravelling your presents.

Any teacher in the arts and sciences has to maintain a sense of childlikeness to be truly inventive.

I always try, if I can, to travel before I start a writing project. For me, travelling is my education. It inspires me, and it clears my mind and allows me to come back with a cleansed palate.

Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.

Write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

The thing that inspires me most is reading and just observing the people around me. I think those are the two things that make me want to write.

Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising. There’s an element of surprise, and especially in science, there is often laughter that goes along with the "Aha." Art also has this element. Our job is to remind us that there are more contexts than the one that we’re in - the one that we think is reality.

I'm never quite sure how the poem is going to resolve itself and that I'm always in some way surprised. I make a discovery in a poem as I write it.

If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic.

If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.

There's always something new by looking at the same thing over and over.

When I write, I never know the endings. What I think works in [my] stories is the fact that when I write, I really want to find out what is going on-I'm writing for myself as a reader. It's like when you dream a dream. I want to know what's behind the door. If I navigate, it's from a place that's totally intuitive.

Ideas come from curiosity.

The element of truth in the concept of genius is to be sought in the object, in what is open, not confined by repetition.

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.

And where does magic come from? I think that magic's in the learning.

I don't have any office; I can write everywhere. So, I put a piece of paper on the table, and then I travel. Literally, writing for me is like travelling. It's getting out of myself and living another life - maybe a better life.