AtomicQuote

Anne Lamott Quote

All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Anne Lamott

All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Tags: writing craft, writing life, writing process

Related Quotes

Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.

Pawan Mishra

Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, cliches, creative writing, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing, literature, on writing

Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature.

Pawan Mishra

Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature.

Tags: artist, arts and humanities, aspiring writers, authors, books, creative people, creative process, creative writing, creativity, fiction

I'm not a writer. Ernest Hemingway was a writer. I just have a vivid imagination and type 90 WPM.

Tiffany Madison

I'm not a writer. Ernest Hemingway was a writer. I just have a vivid imagination and type 90 WPM.

Tags: ernest hemingway, writing, writing craft, writing philosophy, writing process

Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Else they are likely going to move on to another book.

Pawan Mishra

Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Else they are likely going to move on to another book.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, creative people, creative process, creative writing, creativity, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing

As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story in a lesser number of words.

Pawan Mishra

As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story in a lesser number of words.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, creative people, creative process, creative writing, creativity, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing

Be a good reader first, if you wish to become a good writer.

Pawan Mishra

Be a good reader first, if you wish to become a good writer.

Tags: art, arts and humanities, aspiring writers, authors, books, creative process, creative writing, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing

A writer can do without food for a few hours, but not without the sight of books.

Pawan Mishra

A writer can do without food for a few hours, but not without the sight of books.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, creative people, creative process, creative writing, creativity, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing

Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.

C.S. Lewis

Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.

Tags: c s lewis, till we have faces, writing, writing craft

The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas.

Oliver Markus

The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas.

Tags: advice for writers, advice, brevity, honesty, secrets, simplicity, simplifying, writers, writers and writing, writers on thinking

Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time.

Pawan Mishra

Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, creative people, creative process, creative writing, creativity, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing
About Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott (born April 10, 1954) is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.
She is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Lamott is based in Marin County, California. Her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical. Lamott's writings, marked by their self-deprecating humor and openness, cover such subjects as alcoholism, single-motherhood, depression, and Christianity.