Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.

Dillard’s injunction is aimed at writers and artists tempted to “save” their best material for some imagined future project. She argues that creative work thrives on immediacy and generosity: the strongest images, insights, and sentences should be committed to the page when they arrive, rather than rationed out of fear, perfectionism, or career calculation. The repetition—“give it, give it all, give it now”—turns advice into a moral imperative, suggesting that withholding one’s best work is a kind of self-sabotage. Implicitly, the quote also challenges scarcity thinking: the act of giving fully in the present is what makes further work possible.