Anne Lamott Quotes About Perfectionism

Quotes about: Perfectionism

• Oh, my God. What if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your novel or memoir written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools or oceans because your thighs were jiggly or you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen.

  Anne Lamott

  Nice, Ocean, Kids

• Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, True Friend, Mean

• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.

  Anne Lamott

  Running, Fun, Writing

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

• Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.

  Anne Lamott

  Mean, Trying, Cleaning

• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor; the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.

  Anne Lamott

  Positive, Positivity, Voice

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

• You keep working on your piece over and over, trying to get the sections and paragraphs and sentences and the whole just right, but there's a point at which you can tell you've begun hurting the work with your perfectionism. Then you have to release the work to new eyes.

  Anne Lamott

  Hurt, Writing, Eye

• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

  Anne Lamott

  Inspirational, Motivational, Voice

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

• Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground - you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.

  Anne Lamott

  Moving, Writing, Mean

• Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend.

  Anne Lamott

  True Friend, Mean, Artist

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.32, Anchor

• Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.

  Anne Lamott

  Life Is, Perfectionism, Clutter

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

• What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, Order, People

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.32, Anchor

• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life Besides, perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California).

  Anne Lamott

  Block, Writing, California

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

• What if you wake up some day, and you're 65... and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life?

  Anne Lamott

  People, Creative, What If

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