“What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? 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.”

American author

Annie Dillard is an American author known for narrative prose in fiction and nonfiction. She published poetry, essays, prose, literary criticism, two novels, and one memoir. Her 1974 book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. From 1980, she taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.