Annie Dillard

Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#belt #cranking #desk #engine #gears

The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#literature #reads #studies #will #world

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

— Annie Dillard

#days #how #lives #our #our lives

Aim for the chopping block. If you aim for the wood, you will have nothing. Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#block #chopping #nothing #past #through

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#catching #chaos #days #defends #hands

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#spend #take #you

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

— Annie Dillard

#give #heart #life #living #must

The surest sign of age is loneliness. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#loneliness #sign #surest

There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#certain #certain age #child #delivers #earnestness

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#corresponding #energy #muscular #spiritual #sunlight