"If you can bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you don't bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth can destroy you."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"Because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth.  What a miracle 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.  They are full of all the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat.  And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention.  An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift.  My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean.  Aren't you? I ask."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"Writing can give you what having a baby can give you:  it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"The good news is that some days it feels like you just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can use you to write it."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott