Anne Lamott

Lamott says she never works on a new book until the previous one is published and currently has no idea what she would write next.

“I never am working on another book until the last one comes out. And I don't have a clue what I would write”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 48:34

Lamott argues that publication cannot heal a person but the act of writing, like other absorbing practices, can.

“Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, that it will fill the Swiss cheesy holes inside of you. It can't. It won't. But writing can”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 11:20

Lamott says reader feedback taught her that telling forbidden stories is a gift to people going through the same thing.

“when I tell these stories that you're not supposed to say out loud, it's a gift to people who are going through that same sort of thing”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 7:39

Lamott argues that the expectation of always knowing what you are doing is a cultural myth, since writers only learn the work by doing it.

“I mean, the American way is that you should always know what you're doing. You've made a decision and you should stick with it. But the fact is that no writer knows what they're doing until they've done it”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 2:23

Lamott interprets her Havana dream through Carl Jung's idea that every figure in a dream is the dreamer, recognizing herself in the woman she resented.

“But wait, if you believe Carl Jung, everyone in a dream is us”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 44:10

Lamott says her book is mostly about the frightening reality of being deeply loved despite one's character defects.

“we are just deeply loved and And it's scary. It can be scary”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 41:22

Lamott recounts accepting Neil's marriage proposal on the condition that they get another cat, despite his allergy.

“And I said, well, can we get another cat? Because he's violently allergic to cats. And he said, okay. And I said, all right, then I can marry you”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 39:28

Lamott says that releasing her grip on an outcome, rather than forcing it, is usually what allows the hoped-for result to arrive.

“It's when I release it and stop, you know, breathing my hot breath down its neck that I often get what I had hoped for”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 19:31

Lamott recounts refusing to bail her son out of jail, believing that rescuing him could have cost him his life.

“I let him stay in jail overnight because I thought that if I fished him out, he was going to die”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 34:22

Lamott argues in her TED Talk that trying to help grown loved ones is often toxic and a disguised form of control.

“Our help is usually not very helpful. Our help is often toxic. And help is the sunny side of control. Stop helping so much”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 33:41

Lamott says that setting a boundary and putting her son off the property preceded his entry into recovery, now 13 years sober.

“I set that boundary, and about 10 days later, he called and said that the guys in the recovery community in San Francisco had taken him under his wing”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 31:29

Lamott says drinking was normalized in her family and social circle until she had to face what it was doing to her soul.

“And it's unfunny when you're alone with yourself and you have to come face to face with what it's doing to your soul”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 16:07

Lamott recounts getting sober on July 7, 1986 after waking up sick and tired of being sick and tired.

“And then finally, July 7th, 1986, I woke up and I just had this feeling. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 14:56

Lamott describes her first experience of drinking as a transformation that she then chased for twenty years.

“And we chugged them and the whole world sprang into color like in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door into Oz. And I could breathe again. And I felt pretty”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 15:38

Lamott says she does not teach people to write well but to overcome not writing at all.

“I don't try to teach kids or grownups how to write really, really well. I just teach them to stop not writing”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #878: How to Start When You're Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration — Creative Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott and More (Aug 5, 2026) · Listen from 8:08

Lamott warns in her TED Talk that publication and creative success are things a writer has to recover from.

“Publication and temporary creative successes are something you have to recover from. They kill as many people as not”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 11:59

Lamott recounts that she began attending a small church while hungover, drawn by the gospel singing rather than the sermons, and was never pressured to convert.

“And I never stayed for the Jesus-y parts, the sermon, but I loved the singing”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 24:36

Lamott notes that she was raised by devout atheists who were also liberal activists and became a believer who is likewise an activist.

“My parents were devout atheists, but they were also devout liberal activists. And I end up being a believer who's also a devout activist”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 21:31

Lamott calls Doctorow's headlights metaphor the most profound advice she can offer on any topic.

“you can only see a little ways in front of you and you can make the whole journey that way”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #878: How to Start When You're Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration — Creative Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott and More (Aug 5, 2026) · Listen from 8:37

Lamott describes perfectionism as the voice of the oppressor that keeps people crazy.

“how perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. It's the voice of the enemy”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #878: How to Start When You're Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration — Creative Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott and More (Aug 5, 2026) · Listen from 8:37

Lamott argues that public honesty about death in the United States only began with the AIDS epidemic.

“I don't think death really came out of the closet until the AIDS epidemic, you know”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 38:08

Lamott says one never gets over the loss of essential people and should not be expected to.

“You'll never get over these losses, and no matter what the culture says, you're not supposed to”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 36:30

Lamott says no one was writing about the boredom, exhaustion and ambivalence of caring for an infant, so she did.

“It just wasn't that a mother or a parent was writing about how bored you can be with an infant and how exhausting it is all the time, how ambivalent you feel”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 28:57

Lamott describes grace as an unearned, universal love that finds people where they are but does not leave them there.

“The mystery of grace is that God loves Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin and me exactly as much as he or she loves your new grandchild”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 26:20

Lamott criticizes the ethic of constant advancement she calls 'forward thrust' and says the abyss it avoids is where her most important lessons were found.

“I call it forward thrust, is that you must always be advancing and on the path of success”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 19:55

Lamott says she wrote her first novel because in 1977 she could find no books about families going through a serious cancer diagnosis.

“So I started writing a book that might be helpful to people in whose family there was somebody with a really significant kind of cancer”

TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 8:30