Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott

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Important Quotations Explained

1. The problem that comes up over and over again is that these people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You’ll never get where you want to be that way, I tell them.


2. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”


3. To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal, but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be part of the solution, to understand a little about life and pass it on.


4. You don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.


5. “The world can’t give us that serenity,” he said. “The world can’t give us peace. We can only find it in our heart.”
   “I hate that,” I said.
   “I know. But the good news is that by the same token, the world can’t take it away.”


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