Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

by Anne Lamott

This is a difficult country to look too different in—the United States of Advertising, as Paul Krassner puts it—and if you are too skinny or too tall or dark or weird or short or frizzy or homely or poor or nearsighted, you get crucified. I did.

heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer.

We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little.

becoming a better writer is going to help you become a better reader, and that is the real payoff.