Quote of the Day: Anne Lamott on Rest and Repair

What this quote means

On the surface, Anne Lamott is making a playful observation about a universal modern truth: when something is not working, the first thing we try is turning it off and on again. But her genius lies in the twist at the end — “including you.” With those two words, she transforms a practical tech tip into a profound life lesson about rest, boundaries, and self-compassion.

We live in a culture that glorifies burnout. We wear our exhaustion like a badge of honor, measuring our worth by how much we produce and how little we sleep. Lamott gently pushes back against this, reminding us that human beings are not machines designed to run indefinitely. Just as a computer slows down when too many programs are open, we too need to shut down, reset, and start fresh. The quote is a quiet permission slip to stop pushing through and instead step back.

Lamott’s wisdom is particularly powerful because it comes from someone who has written openly about her own struggles with addiction, depression, and the pressure to perform. She is not preaching from a place of detachment. She is sharing a hard-won truth from her own life: that rest is not a luxury but a necessity, and that our best work — and our best selves — emerge not from relentless effort but from the rhythms of effort and recovery.

In practical terms, this quote invites us to examine our relationship with busyness. It asks us to consider what we are holding too tightly, what we are forcing instead of allowing, and where a short pause might bring clarity. Whether it is stepping away from a difficult task at work, putting down our phones for an evening, or simply sitting in silence for five minutes, the act of unplugging creates space for something new to emerge.

About Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott was born on April 10, 1954, in San Francisco, California. She grew up in a literary household — her father, Kenneth Lamott, was a writer — and published her first novel, Hard Laughter, in 1980. She studied at Goucher College but left after two years to pursue her writing career. She found her true voice, however, in nonfiction, where her raw honesty and self-deprecating humor won her a devoted readership.

Her breakthrough came with Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year (1993), a candid memoir of single motherhood, and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994), which became a classic of the writing craft genre. Bird by Bird remains one of the most beloved books on writing ever published, cherished for its warmth, humour, and unflinching honesty about the creative process. She followed these with bestsellers like Traveling Mercies (1999), Plan B (2005), Help, Thanks, Wow (2012), and Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (2018).

Lamott has been honoured with a Guggenheim Fellowship and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2010. Her work spans novels, memoirs, spiritual reflections, and political commentary, all marked by her signature blend of wit, vulnerability, and grace. She lives in Marin County, California, and continues to write, speak, and teach — reminding her audiences, in person and on the page, that hope and humanity are always worth holding on to.

Create your own quote graphic with this quote

This is the kind of quote that resonates most when it is presented visually. A clean typographic layout, a fitting color palette, and readable font sizing can transform these words into a graphic that people save and share. If you want to turn this quote into an Instagram post, WhatsApp status, Pinterest pin, or reel cover, Quotes Creator gives you all the tools to do it in minutes — custom fonts, gradients, backgrounds, and export sizes ready for every major platform.