Flannery O'Connor Quotes
Most popular Flannery O'Connor Quotes
Conviction without experience makes for harshness.
Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.
Belief, in my own case anyway, is the engine that makes perception operate.
There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.
A story has to have muscle as well as meaning, and the meaning has to be in the muscle.
I am very handy with my advice and then when anybody appears to be following it, I get frantic.
I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.
To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.
You may write for the joy of it, but the act of writing is not complete in itself. It has its end in its audience.
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
Success means being heard and don't stand there and tell me you are indifferent to being heard. Everything about you screams to be heard.
In a sense sickness is a place, more instructive than a long trip to Europe, and it's always a place where there's no company, where nobody can follow.
As for Mrs. May, I must have named her that because I knew some English teacher would write and ask me why. I think you folks sometimes strain the soup too thin.
Writing is a good example of self-abandonment. I never completely forget myself except when I am writing and I am never more completely myself than when I am writing.
Every morning between nine and 12, I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit there for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing: if an idea does come between nine and 12, I am there ready for it.
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.
Success means being heard and don't stand there and tell me you are indifferent to being heard. Everything about you screams to be heard. You may write for the joy of it, but the act of writing is not complete in itself. It has its end in its audience.
