What are the motifs in The Writing Life by Annie Dillard?

Writing as pursuit of truth is a recurring idea. While the book clearly portrays "truth" as the goal of writing, and perhaps of art in general, the author seems to be making a clear effort to not offer a definition of what truth is. The closest she seems to come is making a suggestion of what the reader is looking for in a piece of writing (see "Quotes," p. 73). Even then, the suggestion is neither overtly specific nor particularly clear, but instead seems to be referring to an amorphous "something"—which could possibly be understanding, perspective, insight, or even an experience of pleasure or some other sort of feeling—that the reader is seeking, and that the writer therefore has the job and/or the responsibility to evoke effectively.