Age has given me the gift of me; it just gave me what I was always longing for, which was to get to be the woman I've already dreamt of being. Which is somebody who can do rest and do hard work and be a really constant companion, a constant, tender-hearted wife to myself.

— Anne Lamott

A good marriage is supposed to be one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal.

— Anne Lamott

A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.

— Anne Lamott

All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

— Anne Lamott

All these people keep waxing sentimental about how fabulously well I am doing as a mother, how competent I am, but I feel inside like when you're first learning to put nail polish on your right hand with your left. You can do it, but it doesn't look all that great around the cuticles.

— Anne Lamott

All wise people say the same thing that you are deserving of love and that it's all here now everything you need. When you pray you are not starting the conversation from scratch just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

— Anne Lamott

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram--it's the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar.

— Anne Lamott

And because she did not shove this down my throat, this dawned on me.

— Anne Lamott

And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn’t have to anymore.

— Anne Lamott

And I guess when you take away the resentment and disappointment, it's that simple. It is what we do in families: we help, because we were helped.

— Anne Lamott