I see that children fill the existential hollowness many people feel; that when we have children, we know they will need us, and maybe love us, but we don't have a clue how hard it is going to be.

2010. 1983. ISBN 0-679-43520-4.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical. Marked by their self-deprecating humor and openness Lamott's writings cover such subjects as alcoholism single motherhood depression and Christianity.