“What can we make of the inexpressible joy of children? It is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“The rock I'd seen in my life looked dull because in all ignorance I'd never thought to knock it open. People have… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“I had a head for religious ideas. They were the first ideas I ever encountered. They made other ideas seem mean…I had… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
You have to take pains in a memoir not to hang on the reader's arm, like a drunk, and say, 'And then… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“The interior life expands and fills; it approaches the edge of skin; it thickens with its own vivid story; it even begins… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
“...The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he were singing… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
“Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks, smoking… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
It should surprise no one that the life of the writer - such as it is - is colorless to the point of sensory… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain. This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
“What can we make of the inexpressible joy of children? It is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old who wakes… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
“If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one… — Annie Dillard Copy Share
For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to set yourself spinning? — Annie Dillard Copy Share
