Geoff Dyer
Annie Dillard was born in 1945 in Pennsylvania. She is a much-celebrated poet, novelist and essayist and author of thirteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and has received fellowship grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal for her work deepening the understanding of the human experience. www.anniedillard.com
“Many writers dread the idea of writing but force themselves to do it. I’m not like that. Built up over 30-plus years of working at home, the habit of self-discipline means that at the first sign of sleepiness I commit absolutely to a nap. Some days I don’t really feel like sleeping but I lie down and force myself” Geoff Dyer details his writing day at the Guardian.
“I don’t go to books for comfort; I have a memory foam pillow for that”
With his memoir Homework out now, Geoff Dyer talked to the Guardian about books: from the book he’s reread more than any other, to the book he is currently reading.
Guardian
“Jazz was about making your own sound, finding a way to be different from everybody else, never playing the same thing two nights running”
“Dyer’s eyes miss nothing, and his brain emits sparks as brilliantly as The Lightning Field is meant to do in an evening thunderstorm”
Peter Conrad
The Guardian
“The sand is made of gypsum—whatever that is—and is as bright as newfallen snow. Brighter, actually. It’s really quite unbelievable that anything can be so bright”
“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 themselves neither require nor demand it.”
“The point is that there is no meantime. There was just that moment and now there is this moment with nothing in between, just the accordion collapsing and expanding, the tune unchanging”
‘Dillard is triumphantly awake, and these essays are magnificent and dramatic, illuminating and inspirational. Read them; they brim with abundance’
Gavin Francis
The Guardian
‘A writer who never seems tired, who has never plodded her way through a page or sentence, she can only be enjoyed by a wide-awake reader.’ Geoff Dyer’s foreword to The Abundance is available to read at Literary Hub.
Geoff Dyer
Literary Hub