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Dawn Coutu > Dawn's Quotes

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  • #1
    Anne Lamott
    “Even if only the people in your writing group read your memoirs or stories or novel, even if you only wrote your story so that one day your children would know what life was like when you were a child and you knew the name of every dog in town — still, to have written your version is an honorable thing to have done.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    7 likes

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  • #2
    Leo Babauta
    “The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it. Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”
    ― Leo Babauta
    tags: carpe-diem, death, important, inspiration, life, priorities, urgency, wisdom
    224 likes

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  • #3
    Roy T. Bennett
    “Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”
    ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
    tags: dreams, fearless, heart, inspiration, inspirational, inspirational-attitude, inspirational-life, inspirational-quotes, inspire, inspiring, life, life-and-living, life-lessons, life-quotes, living, mind, motivation, motivational, optimism, optimistic, positive, positive-affirmation, positive-life, positive-thinking
    9801 likes

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  • #4
    Stephanie Klein
    “Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.”
    ― Stephanie Klein, Straight Up and Dirty
    5104 likes

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  • #5
    Peter B. Forster
    “Yesterday was surreal. At times K was almost back to herself…funny…interested and relatively mobile. She was tactile and we kissed…she whispered naughty comments into my ear…achingly beautiful…I love her so much”
    ― Peter B. Forster, More Than Love, A Husband's Tale
    tags: life, memoir, truth
    427 likes

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  • #6
    Thomas M. Cirignano
    “Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.”
    ― Thomas M. Cirignano, The Constant Outsider: Memoirs of a South Boston Mechanic
    tags: boston, boston-harbor, boston-history, bully, bullying, castle-island, cirignano, discrimination, dorchester, drinking-and-driving, fitting-in, forced-busing, gas-shortage, irish-mob, italian, memoir, murder, nonfiction, osracism, south-boston, southie, true-crime, whitey-bulger
    220 likes

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  • #7
    Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal,
    “Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, "We *told* you not to tell." But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: abuse, advice, childhood, getting-started, incest, memoir, memories, memory, remembering, writing
    226 likes

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  • #8
    Jaycee Dugard
    “I learned in therapy the word "No" is a complete sentence.”
    ― Jaycee Dugard, A Stolen Life
    tags: memoir
    169 likes

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  • #9
    Gail Caldwell
    “I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures. ...We tell the story to get them back, to capture the traces of footfalls through the snow.”
    ― Gail Caldwell, Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
    tags: friendship, grief, memoir
    106 likes

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  • #10
    Kevin Alan Lee
    “In my opinion, our health care system has failed when a doctor fails to treat an illness that is treatable.”
    ― Kevin Alan Lee, The Split Mind: Schizophrenia from an Insider's Point of View
    tags: culture, government, health-care, health-care-system, humanism, medical, medicine, memoir, mental-illness, philosophy, political-science, politics, psychiatry, psychology, reference, schizophrenia, socialism, society, split-mind
    109 likes

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  • #11
    William Zinsser
    “Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga. ”
    ― William Zinsser
    tags: memoir, writing
    68 likes

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  • #12
    John Grogan
    “In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”
    ― John Grogan, Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from The Philadelphia Inquirer
    tags: humor, inspirational, journalism, memoir
    74 likes

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  • #13
    Stephen King
    “Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.”
    ― Stephen King
    tags: craft, instruction-book, memoir, on-writing
    54 likes

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  • #14
    Ännä White
    “Maybe it’s not about having a beautiful day, but about finding beautiful moments. Maybe a whole day is just too much to ask. I could choose to believe that in every day, in all things, no matter how dark and ugly, there are shards of beauty if I look for them.”
    ― Anna White, Mended: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Leaps of Faith
    tags: bad-day, choose-beauty, depression, everyday-beauty, loss, memoir, optimisism, seek-beauty, small-things, struggle
    64 likes

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  • #15
    Aaron Lauritsen
    “True friends don't come with conditions.”
    ― Aaron Lauritsen, 100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip
    tags: 100-days-drive, 100daysdrive, acceptance, accomplish, adventure, ambition, author, awakening, be-happy, be-proud, believe, bestrong, bestseller, bohemian, break-barriers, carma, chances, change, chase-dreams, cherish, coming-of-age, compassion, competition, confidence, conquer, conquer-fear, content, control-your-life, courage, crossroads, destiny, determination, dig-deep, don-t-give-up, don-t-worry-be-happy, dream-big, dreamer, empower, energy, enjoy-life, explore, faith, fearless, find-yourself, follow-your-dreams, follow-your-heart, follow-your-own-path, forgive, free, freedom, fresh-start, friendship, goal-setting, goals, goals-in-life, good-soul, gratitude, happiness, heal, high-road, hope, humanity, humility, inner-beauty, inner-strength, inspiration, journey, joy, judgement, laugh, learn, liberate, liberating, life, life-lessons, light, limitless, live-life-quotes, love-thy-neighbor, love-thyself, love-yourself, loyalty, luck, memoir, never-quit, no-regrets, nomad, one-life, open-road, opportunity, parenthood, perspective, positive-thinking, power, pride, push-limits, quote-of-the-day, quotes, reflections, resiliency, respect, risk-taking, road-trip, satisfaction, service-to-others, smile, soar, soul-food, spirituality, start-all-over, staystrong, strength, struggle, success, teamwork, thick-skin, think-outside-the-box, travel, truth, values, wander, wanderlust, wateroffaducksback, writer
    81 likes

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  • #16
    James R. Doty
    “It's the same with the wound in our hearts. We need to give them our attention so that they can heal. Otherwise the wounds continue to cause us pain. Sometimes for a very long time. We're all going to get hurt. But here's the trick - they also serve an amazing purpose.
    When our hearts are wounded that's when they open.
    We grow through pain.
    We grow through difficult situations.
    That's why you have to embrace each and every difficult thing in your life.”
    ― James R. Doty, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
    tags: inspirational, medical, medicine, memoir, quotes-to-live-by, science, self-help, self-improvement
    49 likes

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  • #17
    Anne Lamott
    “I don't know where to start," one [writing student] will wail.
    Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O' Connor said that anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Maybe your childhood was grim and horrible, but grim and horrible is Okay if it is well done. Don't worry about doing it well yet, though. Just get it down.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: advice, child, childhood, encouragement, memoir, memories, writers, writing, young
    78 likes

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  • #18
    Steve Pemberton
    “When a human lighthouse sees you in the midst of your storm, it points you toward safety and protection. In doing so, it also sends you and uncompromising message of belief: Yes, the situation is difficult, but you are not alone. I’m standing right here with you, and I know the way home.”
    ― Steve Pemberton, The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World
    tags: christian, growth, inspirational, inspiring, introspective, memoir, motivating, motivational, personal-development, self-help
    36 likes

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  • #19
    Steve Pemberton
    “Courage is not only about finding bravery for ourselves. It is also about helping others find theirs.”
    ― Steve Pemberton, The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World
    tags: christian, growth, inspirational, inspiring, introspective, memoir, motivating, motivational, personal-development, self-help
    33 likes

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  • #20
    Steve Pemberton
    “Pivoting does not mean changing your goal but rather changing your strategy to realize that goal.”
    ― Steve Pemberton, The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World
    tags: christian, growth, inspirational, inspiring, introspective, memoir, motivating, motivational, personal-development, self-help
    31 likes

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  • #21
    Anne Lamott
    “For some of us, 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 after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    2181 likes

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  • #22
    Anne Lamott
    “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. 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
    tags: life, perfectionism, writing
    1349 likes

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  • #23
    Anne Lamott
    “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    1269 likes

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  • #24
    Anne Lamott
    “Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: books, literature, reading, words, writing
    853 likes

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  • #25
    Anne Lamott
    “You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won't really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we'll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: imagination, writer, writers, writing
    571 likes

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  • #26
    Anne Lamott
    “Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    464 likes

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  • #27
    Anne Lamott
    “If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: writing, writing-advice, writing-life
    400 likes

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  • #28
    Anne Lamott
    “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: bird-by-bird, breaking-down-assignment, childhood, encouragement, homework, project, project-management, school, time, time-management, writing, writing-advice
    383 likes

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  • #29
    Anne Lamott
    “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: on-writing
    294 likes

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  • #30
    Anne Lamott
    “Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?”
    ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
    tags: writing
    224 likes



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