Annie Dillard

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“Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed?
Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts? 
Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms? 
Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? 
What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered? 
Why does death so catch us by surprise, and why love? 
We still and always want waking. 
We should amass half dressed in long lines like tribesman and shake gourds at each other, to wake up; instead we watch television and miss the show.”  

—————- ANNIE DILLARD
The Writing Life 

Why are we looking at Art, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed?
Can the artist isololate and vivify all in experience that most engages our eyes, our intellects and our hearts?
Can the artist renew our hope in visual form? 
Why are we looking if not in the hope that the artist will magnify and enliven our sight, will inspire us with vision, courage, and the possibility of remembrance and meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds and hearts the deepest mysteries re-seen, so that we may feel again their majesty and power?
What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered? 
Why does death catch us so by surprise, and why love?
We still and always want waking.
We should amass half dressed in long lines like tribesman and shake gourds at each other, to wake up; instead we watch television and miss the show.”  

—————- ANNIE DILLARD (altered to be directed towards artists and viewers by J.R. )