Bird By Bird Quotes

“Toni Morrison said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else," and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Get it all down. Let it pour out of you and onto the page. Write an incredibly shitty, self-indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft. Then take out as many of the excesses as you can.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“For a life oriented to leisure is in the end a life oriented to death – the greatest leisure of all.”
― Ann Lamott

“Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“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

“There may be a Nurse Ratched-like listing of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed. But you hold an imaginary gun to your head and make yourself stay at the desk.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere.”
― Lamott, Anne

“By Enjoying the Process, we can stretch that awareness out so that it's no longer only a moment, but covers the whole thing.”
― Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh