Annie Dillard Quotes

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Annie Dillard

Profession : Author

Birth : April 30, 1945

I noticed this process of waking, and predicted with terrifying logic that one of these years not far away I would be awake continuously and never slip back, and never be free of myself again.

Annie Dillard

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.

Annie Dillard

There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable.

Annie Dillard

The mind of the writer does indeed do something before it dies, and so does its owner, but I would be hard put to call it living.

Annie Dillard

How can people think that artists seek a name? There is no such thing as an artist - only the world, lit or unlit, as the world allows.

Annie Dillard

A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.

Annie Dillard

It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.

Annie Dillard

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

Annie Dillard

I worked so hard all my life, and all I want to do now is read.

Annie Dillard

God gave me a talent to draw. I 'owed' it to him to develop the talent.

Annie Dillard

When I teach, I preach. I thump the Bible. I exhort my students morally. I talk to them about the dedicated life.

Annie Dillard

Write about winter in the summer.

Annie Dillard

There is no such thing as an artist - only the world, lit or unlit, as the world allows.

Annie Dillard

People love pretty much the same things best. A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.

Annie Dillard

Much has been written about the life of the mind.

Annie Dillard

Matters of taste are not, it turns out, moral issues.

Annie Dillard

The Pulitzer is more useful than meaningful.

Annie Dillard

Buddhism notes that it is always a mistake to think your soul can go it alone.

Annie Dillard

When I first read the words 'introvert' and 'extrovert' when I was 10, I thought I was both.

Annie Dillard

You are wrong if you think that you can in any way take the vision and tame it to the page. The page is jealous and tyrannical; the page is made of time and matter; the page always wins.

Annie Dillard