How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Every morning, no matter how late he had been up, my father rose at 5:30, went to his study, wrote for a couple of hours, made us all breakfast, read the paper with my mother, and then went back to work for the rest of the morning. Many years passed before I realized that he did this by choice, for a living, and that he was not unemployed or mentally ill. (Introduction.2)
Anne Lamott's father is really into his writing. Lamott isn't just passing on her knowledge about writing here; she's also passing on her dad's knowledge about it. We're getting two books for the price of one.
Quote #2
Writing taught my father to pay attention; my father in turn taught other people to pay attention and then to write down their thoughts and observations. His students were the prisoners at San Quentin who took part in the creative-writing program. (Introduction.4)
Writing isn't just about having a lot to say; it's about learning to notice things. One of Anne Lamott's big points is that to be a good writer, it isn't enough to just write good sentences; it involves becoming a better, more honest person, too. You can only reach people, she says, if you write the truth—and that involves knowing yourself and your environment intensely.
Quote #3
I started writing a lot in high school: journals, impassioned antiwar pieces, parodies of the writers I loved. And I began to notice something important. The other kids always wanted me to tell them stories of what had happened, even—or especially—when they had been there. Parties that got away from us, blowups in the classroom or on the school yard, scenes involving their parents that we had witnessed—I could make the story happen. I could make it vivid and funny, and even exaggerate some of it so that the event became almost mythical, and the people involved seemed larger, and there was a sense of larger significance, of meaning. (Introduction.19)
Writing for Lamott isn't just about her own stories; it's also about telling the stories of a community, whether that means that of her classmates, her family, or her friends.