The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
When you write, you lay out a line of words. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination without passing through the world.” — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
People who read are not too lazy to turn on the television; they prefer books. — 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
I write in my own journal when something extraordinary or funny happens. And there's some nice imagery in there. I don't think… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. She read books as one would breathe ether, to… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Why, why in the blue-green world write this sort of thing? Funny written culture, I guess; we pass things on.” — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Fiction keeps its audience by retaining the world as its subject matter. People like the world. Many people actually prefer it to… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Writing a book is like rearing children -- willpower has very little to do with it. If you have a little baby… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
If even rock was interesting, if even this ugliness was worth whole shelves at the library, required sophisticated tools to study, and… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a wood carver's gouge,… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of a… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Hemingway studied, as models, the novels of Knut Hamsun and Ivan Turgenev. Isaac Bashevis Singer, as it happened, also chose Hamsun and… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, & it smells good. Writing is… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
When you open a book,” the sentimental library posters said, “anything can happen.” This was so. A book of fiction was a… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Many writers do little else but sit in small rooms recalling the real world. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Society places the writer so far beyond the pale that society does not regard the writer at all.” — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
It makes more sense to write one big book - a novel or nonfiction narrative - than to write many stories or… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“It is no less difficult to write a sentence in a recipe than sentences in Moby Dick. So you might as well… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The mind of the writer does indeed do something before it dies, and so does its owner, but I would be hard… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“So it is that a writer writes many books. In each book, he intended several urgent and vivid points, many of which… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do… — 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
