Annie Dillard

Like everyone in his right mind, I feared Santa Claus.

— Annie Dillard

“This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent.”

— Annie Dillard

The creatures I seek do not want to be seen.

— Annie Dillard

Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves.

— Annie Dillard

We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious…

— Annie Dillard

“...The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he…

— Annie Dillard

“Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue…

— Annie Dillard

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and…

— Annie Dillard

It should surprise no one that the life of the writer - such as it is - is colorless to the point…

— Annie Dillard

It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should…

— Annie Dillard

The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain. This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since…

— Annie Dillard

“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

“If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are…

— Annie Dillard

For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to…

— Annie Dillard

I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.

— Annie Dillard

“I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting…

— Annie Dillard

“We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.…

— Annie Dillard

Time is the warp and matter the weft of the woven texture of beauty in space, and death is the hurling shuttle.

— Annie Dillard

[Insects] are not only cold-blooded, and green- and yellow-blooded, but are also cased in a clacking horn. They have rigid eyes and…

— Annie Dillard

I am sorry I ran from you. I am still running, running from that knowledge, that eye, that love from which there…

— Annie Dillard

“For as long as I could remember, I had been transparent to myself, unselfconscious, learning, doing, most of every day. Now I…

— Annie Dillard

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and…

— Annie Dillard

At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you…

— Annie Dillard

No child on earth was ever meant to be ordinary, and you can see it in them, and they know it, too,…

— Annie Dillard

“Let the grass die. I let almost all of my indoor plants die from neglect while I was writing the book. There…

— Annie Dillard