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Authors:

Annie Dillard quotes

American Author April 30, 1945

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Quotes

There was only silence. It was the silence of matter caught in the act and embarrassed. There were no cells moving, and yet there were cells. I could see the shape of the land, how it lay holding silence. Its poise and its stillness were unendurable, like the ring of the silence you hear in your skull when you're little and notice you're living the ring which resumes later in life when you're sick. Annie Dillard
Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading--that is a good life. A day that closely resembles every other day of the past ten or twenty years does not suggest itself as a good one. But who would not call Pasteur's life a good one, or Thomas Mann's? Annie Dillard
The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, and it smells good. Writing is mere writing, literature is mere. Annie Dillard
It should surprise no one that the life of the writer—such as it is—is colorless to the point of sensory deprivation. Many writers do little else but sit in rooms recalling the real world. This explains why so many books describe the author’s childhood. A writer’s childhood may well have been the occasion of his only firsthand experience. Annie Dillard
When, over the following months, Minta Randall found that Eustace apparently reciprocated her profoundest and most secret feelings, she thought she had never lived before, or knew what life could hold, or what absolute power one heart could exert upon another. She perceived no trace, fossil, or echo of this wild sensation anywhere around her, and concluded that she and Eustace had invented it together, which would be, she thought, just like them. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "When I teach, I preach. I thump the Bible. I exhort my..."
When I teach, I preach. I thump the Bible. I exhort my students morally. I talk to them about the dedicated life. Annie Dillard
Noticing and remembering everything would trap bright scenes to light and fill the blank and darkening past which was already piling up behind me. The growing size of that blank and ever-darkening past frightened me; it loomed beside me like a hole in the air and battened on scraps of my life I failed to claim. If one day I forgot to notice my life, and be damned grateful for it, the blank cave would suck me up entire. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "life by its mere appalling length is a feat of endurance for..."
life by its mere appalling length is a feat of endurance for which you haven't the strength. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "I worked so hard all my life, and all I want to do now is read."
I worked so hard all my life, and all I want to do now is read. Annie Dillard
The reader's ear must adjust down from loud life to the subtle, imaginary sounds of the written word. An ordinary reader picking up a book can't yet hear a thing; it will take half an hour to pick up the writing's modulations, its ups and downs and louds and softs. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "Private life, book life, took place where words met..."
Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination without passing through the world. Annie Dillard
Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "As a life's work, I would remember everything - everything,..."
As a life's work, I would remember everything - everything, against loss. I would go through life like a plankton net. Annie Dillard
What is important is the moment of opening a life and feeling it touch--with an electric hiss and cry--this speckled mineral sphere, our present world. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard quote: "The dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your..."
The dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your whole heart. Annie Dillard

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