I think that is why we stay close to our families, no matter how neurotic the members, how deeply annoying or dull—because when people have seen you at your worst, you don't have to put on the mask as much.

—Anne Lamott in Traveling Mercies

About Anne Lamott

Portrait of Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott (born April 10, 1954) is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.

More quotations from Anne Lamott

A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.

—Anne Lamott in Joe Jones

Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life—it has given me me. It has provided time and experience and failures and triumphs and time-tested friends who have helped me step into the shape that was waiting for me. I fit into me now. I have an organic life, finally, not necessarily the one people imagined for me, or tried to get me to have. I have the life I longed for. I have become the woman I hardly dared imagine I would be.

—Anne Lamott in Plan B

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.

—Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird

Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world's worst roommate, like having Janis Joplin with a bad hangover and PMS come to stay with you.

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

God people hatred self-deception projection

History

21 Dec 2018 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

I think that is why we stay close to our families, no matter how neurotic the members, how deeply annoying or dull―because when people have seen you at your worst, you don't have to put on the mask as much.