STORY Chicago 2012 – Anne Lamott

Speaker Info

Anne Lamott
Best-selling author of Traveling Mercies, Bird by Bird, others.
San Francisco

Notes

• People can’t believe I’m actually this Jesus-y. It’s frightening.
• All of your problems as a writer will be mental. It’s all the voices that you’ve internalized who don’t get who you are.
• Most people in your family will not be thrilled to hear you’re writing a memoir.
• We know we’re whole, perfect, chosen…I am a daughter of the Covenant. And yet, boy have I made a mess of my life. It’s a long road back from being so lost.
• The FDA doesn’t give you a stamp of approval once you get found.
• Most of the time, my challenge is mental and getting out of my own way.
• I was raised by atheists to worship at the altar of the New York Times.
• I can promise you this: There is no code to break. You never figure it out. For most of us, there’s not a code we break that sets us free.
• We want freedom? Practice discipline. That’s actually some of the terrible news.
• Writers have pens. Carry a pen.
• You won’t remember it. Write it down.
• I’ve been a scared-to-death little being. When I found chapter books growing up, I could breathe again. I knew what I would be involved in growing up. I would write chapter books.
• I was no longer a damaged little person anymore. I was a part of the community. A chemotherapy of belonging.
• I want to be someone with medicine to offer people.
• I want to be with people like me. People who struggle, fail, and make mistakes. Who get back up and start over.
• What are you going to do with your work today? That’s all you need to know. That’s the only question you need to answer.
• Take it bird by bird. First we’re going to write about penguins in your own voice. Then we’re going to write about pelicans. Then we’re going to write about juncos, etc.
• We all face the challenge of believing that our voice is as good as the artists we admire.
• All of life is like driving at night with the headlights on. We can only see a small portion of the journey in front of us, but we can make the whole trip that way.
• Perfectionism is the voice of the Oppressor.
• The truth is no one knows what they’re doing most of the time. We figure it out as we go. We figure it out together.
• I wrote a prayer the other day. It said, “If I you were You, I’d be sick of me by now.”
• You’re in the same boat with the older artists and the older writers.
• The system works. You will get your work done.
• If you say to yourself, “I don’t have time,” you need to look at what your life is really going to be about.
• If you look at yourself when you’re 80 years old and you never write or create the things you’ve always wanted to, it will break your heart.
• If you want to be an artist, just do it.
• Everything that I’ve written started very, very badly.
• I’m not going to look like Kim Kardashian. That breaks my heart. But I celebrate who I am. I am made for God. I am made of God.
• When I surrender, God can work with me.
• God’s not your executive assistant. You have to meet hi halfway. If you don’t do that, it’s not going to work for you. You’re dreaming.
• The divine assistance is going to be there for you. This unearned assistance will be there for you.
• I steal pens all the time. It’s not one of the Ten Commandments. Just write it down!

Interview with Ian Cron

• It’s okay to need help. We wouldn’t be alive with out.
• You really only need three main prayers: Help. Thanks. Wow.
• Poets see something that we’ve all seen 100 times and just show it to us differently.
• To my sisters in the audience, you don’t have time to waste on thinking about your butt size. You’ve done a great job of that already.
• You have a child and they’re nursing one day and they next day they have the ability to be rude.
• You gotta get your money’s worth out of life.
• I can’t give out what I don’t have. Put your oxygen mask on first before helping others!
• We’re raised to be co-dependent. We believe that if you’re a martyr, you’re a fabulous person.
• I need to walk my heroes walk. No is a complete sentence.
• You don’t need to be a martyr, we already have a martyr.

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