Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just... - Anne Lamott

"The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. 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. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out."

"When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens."

"Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."

"I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right."

"Everyone is flailing through this life without an owner's manual, with whatever modicum of grace and good humor we can manage."