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
rest-in-peace mystery life-is
Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery.
time men grace
Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.
jest made earnest
The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.
secret done divinity
Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensibl e earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see.
rip expression trying
Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It is life at its most free, if you are fortunate enough to be able to try it, because you select your materials, invent your task, and pace yourself.
seasons
These are our few live seasons. Let us live them as purely as we can, in the present.
fancy
We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all.
feelings quality progress
There is neither a proportional relationship, nor an inverse one, between a writer’s estimation of a work in progress & its actual quality. The feeling that the work is magnificent, & the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged.
summer writing winter
Write about winter in the summer.
hands simplicity healthy
The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But- and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.
struggle book writing
I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place.
rip connections
Make connections; let rip; and dance where you can.
block past woods
Aim for the chopping block. If you aim for the wood, you will have nothing. Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block.
people church cheerful
Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?