Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillardis an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Dillard taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth30 April 1945
CityPittsburgh, PA
art book writing
I like to be aware of a book as a piece of writing, and aware of its structure as a product of mind, and yet I want to be able to see the represented world through it. I admire artists who succeed in dividing my attention more or less evenly between the world of their books and the art of their books . . . so that a reader may study the work with pleasure as well as the world that it describes.
children prayer thinking
By dipping us children in the Bible so often, they hoped, I think, to give our lives a serious tint, and to provide us with quaintly magnificent snatches of prayer to produce as charms while, say, being mugged for our cash or jewels.
How you spend your days is how you spend your life.
believe love-you writing
Evolution loves death more than it loves you or me. This is easy to write, easy to read, and hard to believe.
writing finding-yourself lines
When you write, you lay out a line of words. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory.
writing dying ifs
Write as if you are dying.
discipline doe littles
Doing something does not require discipline. It creates its own discipline - with a little help from caffeine.
work vocabulary skills
There must be bands of enthusiasts for everything on earth-fanatics who shared a vocabulary, a batch of technical skills and equipment, and, perhaps, a vision of some single slice of the beauty and mystery of things, of their complexity, fascination, and unexpectedness.
book mind passionate
Almost all of my many passionate interests, and my many changes of mind, came through books. Books prompted the many vows I made to myself.
eye trying soil
I still try to keep my eyes open. I'm always on the lookout for antlion traps in sandy soil, monarch pupae near milkweed, skipper larvae in locust leaves. These things are utterly common, and I've not seen one
want creatures
The creatures I seek do not want to be seen.
firsts extroverts introvert
When I first read the words 'introvert' and 'extrovert' when I was 10, I thought I was both.
book extravagant pure
All my books started out as extravagant and ended up pure and plain.
book written
Johnston's books are beautifully written and among the funniest I have ever read.