Annie Dillard, Teaching A Stone To Talk: Expeditions And Encounters Quotes

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home - dear and familiar stone hearth and garden - and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners.

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.

I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.

Nature's silence is its one remark, and every flake of world is a chip off that old mute and immutable block.

The soul may ask God for anything, and never fail.

What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are not they both saying: Hello? We spy on whales and on interstellar radio objects we starve ourselves and pray till we're blue.

I set up and staged hundreds of ends-of-the-world and watched, enthralled, as they played themselves out.