Annie Dillard

For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to set yourself spinning?

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.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and with that one, is what we are doing.

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.

Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?

Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves.

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.

if you stay still, earth buries you, ready or not.

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.