I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you’re going no matter how you live, cannot you part.
—Annie Dillard
The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart.
—Annie Dillard
Topics: Commitment, Dedication, Giving, Romance
Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.
—Annie Dillard
You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
—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. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then–and only then–it is handed to you.
—Annie Dillard
Topics: Writing
You can’t test courage cautiously.
—Annie Dillard
Topics: Courage
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
—Annie Dillard
Topics: Action, Carpe-diem
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Alice Walker American Novelist, Activist
Joan Didion American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Anne Lamott American Novelist
Joyce Maynard American Novelist
Carol Shields Canadian Author, Academic
Sylvia Plath American Poet, Novelist
Maya Angelou American Poet
Fannie Flagg American Comedian, Novelist
Wendell Berry American Author, Environmentalist