WRITING

'Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.97.

ROOMS

'Just as every person is a walking advertisemnet for who he or she is, so very room is a little showcase of its occupants' values and personalities. Every room is about memory. Every room gives us layers of information about our past and present and who we are, our shrines and quirks and hopes and sorrows, our attempts to prove that we exist and are more or less Okay. You can see in our rooms, how much light we need - how many light bulbs, candles, skylights we have - and in how we keep things lit you see how we try and comfort ourselves. The mix in our rooms is so touching: the clutter and the cracks in the wall belie a bleakness or brokeness in our lives, while photos and a few rare objects show our pride, our rare shining moments.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.74.

SUFFERING

'She explained that when we have a wound in our body, the nearby muscles cramp around it to protect it from any more violation and infection, and that I would need to use those muscles if I wanted them to relax again...

I think that something similar happens with our psychic muslces. They cramp around our wounds - the pain from our childhood, the losses and disappointmnets of adulthood, the humiliations suffered in both - to keep us from getting hurt in the same place again, to keep foreign substances out. So these wounds never have a chance to heal.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.29.

PERFECTIONISM

'I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.28.

PREACHING

'...the first draft is the down draft - you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft - you fix it up. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.25.

GOD

'...you can safely assume you've created God in your image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do...'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.22.

BOOKS

'...books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid, squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort or quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. They are full of all the things you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of the day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean. Aren't you?'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.15.

HOPE

'...hope is a revolutionary patience...'
Anonymous in Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, p.xxiii.

THE CROSS

'Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading us to repentance).'

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.72.

ENVY

'Envy is the reverse side of a coin called vanity. Nobody is ever envious of others who is not first proud of himself.'

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.65.