What is important is the moment of opening a life and feeling it touch--with an electric hiss and cry--this speckled mineral sphere, our present world.
Annie DillardRead
Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the ideal work environment is one that encourages introspection and creativity rather than being distracted by the outside world.
Annie Dillard's quote reflects a deep understanding of the creative process, emphasizing that appealing or distracting surroundings can hinder true imaginative work. By advocating for a workspace devoid of external stimuli, she proposes that it is within the confines of solitude and darkness that one's imagination can fully engage with memories and inner thoughts, allowing for profound creativity and insight to flourish.
Themes
WorkplaceImaginationMemorySolitudeCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing workshop discussing ideal environments for writing.
More from Annie Dillard
All quotes βGeography is the key, the crucial accident of birth. A piece of protein could be a snail, a sea lion, or a systems analyst, but it had to start somewhere. This is not science; it is merely metaphor. And the landscape in which the protein "starts" shapes its end as surely as bowls shape water.
Annie DillardRead
Buddhism notes that it is always a mistake to think your soul can go it alone.
Annie DillardRead
Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
Annie DillardRead
It is difficult to undo our own damage, and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. The very holy mountains are keeping mum. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it; we are lighting matches in vain under every green tree.
Annie DillardRead
To crank myself up I stood on a jack and ran myself up. I tightened myself like a bolt. I inserted myself in a vise-clamp and wound the handle till the pressure built. I drank coffee in titrated doses. It was a tricky business, requiring the finely tuned judgment of a skilled anesthesiologist. There was a tiny range within which coffee was effective, short of which it was useless, and beyond which, fatal.
Annie DillardRead
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