# Bird by Bird
## Metadata
- Author:: [[Anne Lamott]]
- Full Title:: Bird by Bird
- Category: #books
## Highlights
> To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass—seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one. ([Location 1367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=1367))
> Telling these truths is your job. You have nothing else to tell us. But needless to say, you can’t tell them in a sentence or a paragraph; the truth doesn’t come out in bumper stickers. ([Location 1375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=1375))
> I no longer think of it as block. I think that is looking at the problem from the wrong angle. If your wife locks you out of the house, you don’t have a problem with your door. ([Location 2137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2137))
> It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what’s keeping things running right. We’re bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they’re not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to the others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull. ([Location 2170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2170))
> Toni Morrison said, “The function of freedom is to free someone else,” and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. ([Location 2285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2285))
# Bird by Bird
## Metadata
- Author:: [[Anne Lamott]]
- Full Title:: Bird by Bird
- Category: #books
## Highlights
> To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass—seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one. ([Location 1367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=1367))
> Telling these truths is your job. You have nothing else to tell us. But needless to say, you can’t tell them in a sentence or a paragraph; the truth doesn’t come out in bumper stickers. ([Location 1375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=1375))
> I no longer think of it as block. I think that is looking at the problem from the wrong angle. If your wife locks you out of the house, you don’t have a problem with your door. ([Location 2137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2137))
> It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what’s keeping things running right. We’re bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they’re not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to the others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull. ([Location 2170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2170))
> Toni Morrison said, “The function of freedom is to free someone else,” and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. ([Location 2285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000SEGI8Q&location=2285))