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
atheist believe judging
If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed.
cutting rough-edges use
I had hopes for my rough edges. I wanted to use them as a can opener, to cut myself a hole in the world's surface and exit through it.
fall two wild-roses
Could two live that way? Could two live under the wild rose, and explore by the pond, so that the smooth mind of each is as everywhere present to the other, and as received and as unchallenged, as falling snow?
letting-go stars instant
He judged the instant and let go; he flung himself loose into the stars.
couple scare tonight
Tonight I walked around the pond scaring frogs; a couple of them jumped off, going, in effect, eek, and most grunted, and the pond was still. But one big frog, bright green like a poster-paint frog, didn't jump, so I waved my arm and stamped to scare it, and it jumped suddenly, and I jumped, and then everything in the pond jumped, and I laughed and laughed.
dream children loving-life
It's about waking up. A child wakes up over and over again, and notices that she's living. She dreams along, loving the exuberant life of the senses, in love with beauty and power, oblivious to herself -- and then suddenly, bingo, she wakes up and feels herself alive. She notices her own awareness. And she notices that she is set down here, mysteriously, in a going world.
nature believe autumn
Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital. Extravagance! Nature will try anything once.
eye flames fire
I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.
pain waste mystery
Cruelty is a mystery, and a waste of pain.
blue mountain world
I saw in a blue haze all the world poured flat and pale between the mountains
schedules chaos catching
A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.
healing abet creation
We are here to witness the creation and to abet it.
eye walking-away world
Admire the world for never ending on you -- as you would an opponent, without taking your eyes away from him, or walking away.
generations heroic chickens
There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been.