The secret is not to write about what you love best, but about what you, alone, love at all. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Writers serve as the memory of a people. They chew over our public past. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Old memories are very easy to get except that once you write about something you've destroyed it. — 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
The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Novels written with film contracts in mind have a faint but unmistakable, and ruinous, odor. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“The writing that so thrills and exhilarates you, as if you were dancing right next to the band, is barely audible 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
It should surprise no one that the life of the writer - such as it is - is colorless to the point… — 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
“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
Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles. — 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
“He is careful of what he reads, for this is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, as… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a book in a… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“The death of self of which the great writers speak is no violent act. It is merely the joining of the great… — 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
Whenever an encounter between a writer of good will and a regular person of good will happens to touch on the subject… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“The range of rhythms in prose is larger and grander than it is in poetry, and it can handle discursive ideas and… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Why do you never find anything written about that idiosyncratic thought you advert to, about your fascination with something no one else… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“It should surprise no one that the life of the writer--such as it is--is colorless to the point of sensory deprivation. Many… — 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
Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away,… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer… — 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
“Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“It should surprise no one that the life of the writer--such as it is--is colorless to the point of sensory deprivation. Many… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“We teach our children one thing only, as we were taught: to wake up. We teach our children to look alive there,… — 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, right away, every… — 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
Many writers do little else but sit in small rooms recalling the real world. — 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
“This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent.” — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves. — 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 Image
“...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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
