Just think: in all the clean, beautiful reaches of the solar system, our planet alone is a blot; our planet alone has death.

Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?

A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.

Annie Dillard Quotes