You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: There is nothing there...You feel the world's word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: This hum is the silence. Annie Dillard More Quotes by Annie Dillard More Quotes From Annie Dillard 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. Annie Dillard writing long book Adverbs are a sign that you've used the wrong verb. Annie Dillard verbs used writing I noticed this process of waking, and predicted with terrifying logic that one of these years not far away I would be awake continuously and never slip back, and never be free of myself again. Annie Dillard wake-up would-be years The creatures I seek do not want to be seen. Annie Dillard creatures want We live half our waking lives and all of our sleeping lives in some private, useless, and insensible waters we never mention or recall. Annie Dillard sleep water 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. Annie Dillard loving-life dream children The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness; the mind wants to know all the world, and all eternity, and God. Annie Dillard mind want world As a life's work, I would remember everything - everything, against loss. I would go through life like a plankton net. Annie Dillard remembers-everything loss remember A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all. Annie Dillard subjects What I sought in books was imagination. It was depth, depth of thought and feeling; some sort of extreme of subject matter; some nearness to death; some call to courage. I myself was getting wild; I wanted wildness, originality, genius, rapture, hope. ... What I sought in books was a world whose surfaces, whose people and events and days lived, actually matched the exaltation of the interior life. There you could live. Annie Dillard imagination book people Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination without passing through the world. Annie Dillard imagination book world Almost all of my many passionate interests, and my many changes of mind, came through books. Books prompted the many vows I made to myself. Annie Dillard passionate mind book I'm a housewife: I spend far more time on housework than anything else. Annie Dillard housewife housework more-time Young children have no sense of wonder. They bewilder well, but few things surprise them. All of it is new to young children, after all, and equally gratuitous. Annie Dillard surprise wonder children Like everyone in his right mind, I feared Santa Claus. Annie Dillard santa christmas mind For all the insularity of the old guard, Pittsburgh was always an open and democratic town. Annie Dillard pittsburgh towns cities Silence is not our heritage but our destiny; we live where we want to live. Annie Dillard heritage destiny silence The soul may ask God for anything, and never fail. Annie Dillard failing soul may 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. Annie Dillard hours inspirational life 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. Annie Dillard ponds scare couple
