Imperfect Birds Quotes

“butterflies were wind energy made visible.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“We're all afraid of the same stuff. Mostly we're afraid that we're secretly not okay, that we're disgusting, or frauds, or about to be diagnosed with cancer. ... We want to teach you how to quiet the yammer ... how you can create comfort, inside and outside, how you can get warm, how you can feed yourself. And even learn to get through silence. ... There is a wilderness inside you, and a banquet. Both. [p. 253]”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“The speaker at the meeting, a blonde woman in a fine tailored suit, shared how alcoholism had stolen her own childhood, and had now come back for her child.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“With THC in your system, you don't dream. And you need to. Otherwise it is like losing one of your senses. Dreams are part of your wholeness. ... when you're dreaming, you're not the one calling the shots. So it's a reprieve. ... the dream world had rules in it. You couldn't read a clock in your dreams. It would not give you the time. If the lights were on in a room, you could not turn them off in a dream. ... in indigenous tribes all over the world, the dream world was like church. [p. 247]”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Rosie [her teenage daughter] had a secret life now, was putting together her own tribe, finding her identity there, and it was great to see, and it hurt like hell.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Life on earth is a head-scratcher for anyone who's paying attention. This place has been a bad match for me since I was four.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Rosie had been a little girl with a dead dad, and there was no getting around that or over that. Even a drunk dad, even an asshole, was better than a dead dad, which shouldn't reflect on you but did, and left a cannon hole in your heart. [p. 121]”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Life on earth is a head-scratcher for anyone who’s paying attention. This place has been a bad match for me since I was four.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Look, if you don't have a bad attitude and lots of things wrong with you, no serious person is going to be interested. If you feel scared, outraged, confused most of the time, come on over. Have a seat.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“You stop pretending life is such fin or makes sense. It's often messy and cruel and dull, and we do the best we can. It's unfair, and jerks seem to win. But you fall in love with a few people.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Everyone was on God's payroll, whether they knew it or not.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“She slept deeply, but as usual, she did not dream. It had been months; none of them was dreaming anymore. [p. 227]”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Rosie had to keep her room neat enough so James would not freak out, but not so neat that they could figure it all out, break the code, of who you truly were, what you were up to, your values, your truest parts. ... you were layer upon layer of ideas and erasures and new ideas and soul and images. [p. 68]”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding space,’ to quote the late, great Zora Neale Hurston. It”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Nah. But on the first day of class, when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew these people weren’t fooling around.’ ” Lank”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“This is parenting on steroids.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“[W]hen you're dreaming, you're not the one calling the shots. So it's a reprieve.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“Do you think that we're wired this way? With the devil inside?" "Yeah, in the same way we're wired for God. But not to the same extent.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds

“God loves you crazily, like I love you, Rae said, like a slightly overweight auntie, who sees only your marvelousness and need.”
― Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds