Anne Lamott Quotes

I have a lot of growing up to do, or a lot of growing down. I think that's probably more appropriate.

I had a moment a few years ago where I wasn't sure if I was acting for myself or because people expected it of me. A bit of a crisis of faith, I suppose. I did some soul-searching, took a break and decided I was going to live my life only for me.

I always joke deep down I'm really a teenage girl on the inside.

It is not easy to age in harmony with one's roles.

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

I'm on the path to being someone I'm equally terrified by and obsessed with. My true self.

That's one of the things about getting older isn't it? You suddenly realise that you are what you set out to be. And there are no role models any more.

I still feel like an immature idiot inside, but I look in the mirror and - as a friend of mine once said- this old guy keeps getting in the way.

I think about what 10-year-old Tony would want that 40-year-old Tony can make.

I look at that person and I'm like, That's not Kelli White. That's not who I am, who I started out to be.

When I was in my 20s, I thought I knew who I was. And then as soon as I turned 30, I realized that person has bruises and bumps and dark parts. And you kind of go, well, that's it. I'd rather embrace it than force myself to change.

Parenthood is so wild in its ability to put a mirror directly in your face and force you to look at yourself long and hard. What a challenge this is, but also what an exhilarating gift.

Gaga came to me, and I just could not find a soul. I come from church; maybe that has something to do with it. I like to get to the soul of a person. I just didn't feel a soul.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you're in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life - you write about the mindset you're in at that moment.

Something really intense happened to me during the 'SNL' performance. It felt like the person I was made to be faced the person I'm becoming. It was the first time I felt like I was able to make any sense of ownership of my work.

I had a turbulent relationship with my calves, but I love them now because I realize that they were never the problem.

I think you're always attracted by characters that are a little bit like you, or at least the worst parts of you that you can finally accept and say, 'All right, at least I know that now!'

As I get older and unavoidably change a bit living as a celebrity, I always promise myself not to change.

I don't know how happy I was when I met Sting. I always had this difficulty of not really knowing who I was.

One of the beautiful things about Tyler Durden in 'Fight Club' is that he seems to understand the implicit vanity and self-absorption that comes with the desire to improve oneself.

I think I've finally, after 72 years, gotten used to my voice, and it sounds like a friend now instead of an enemy.

I feel different. You know this many times over, because you are a parent, but it transforms you. It's this incredible experience where, in one way, you are still very much yourself, and in some ways you become even more connected to the rest of yourself. All of a sudden, you just get more connected to your child self, and your teenage self, and all these selves that you've maybe been abandoning at every date post that you pass.

What does it mean when a man falls in love with a radiant face across the room? It may mean that he has some soul work to do. His soul is the issue. Instead of pursuing the woman and trying to get her alone, away from her husband, he needs to go alone himself, perhaps to a mountain cabin, for three months, write poetry, canoe down a river, and dream. That would save some women a lot of trouble.

Simultaneously I am myself, the child I was, the old man I will be.

I am all the ages I've ever been.