Annie Dillard

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

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. ”

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. ”

The dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your whole heart. ”

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. ”

You can't test courage cautiously. ”

According to Inuit culture in Greenland, a person possesses six or seven souls. The souls take the form of tiny people scattered throughout the body. ”

It makes more sense to write one big book - a novel or nonfiction narrative - than to write many stories or essays. Into a long, ambitious project you can fit or pour all you possess and learn. ”

The painter... does not fit the paints to the world. He most certainly does not fit the world to himself. He fits himself to the paint. The self is the servant who bears the paintbox and its inherited contents. ”

As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker. ”