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Authors:

Flannery O'Connor quotes about writing

American Author March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964

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Quotes

Flannery O'Connor quote: "Anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for..."
Anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Flannery O'Connor
The high-school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a guided opportunity, through the best writing of the past, to come, in time, to an understanding of the best writing of the present. He will teach literature, not social studies or little lessons in democracy or the customs of many lands. And if the student finds that this is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed. Flannery O'Connor
I don't think literature would be possible in a determined world. We might go through the motions but the heart would be out of it. Nobody could then 'smile darkly and ignore the howls.' Even if there were no Church to teach me this, writing two novels would do it. I think the more you write, the less inclined you will be to rely on theories like determinism. Mystery isn't something that is gradually evaporating. It grows along with knowledge. Flannery O'Connor
You do not write the best you can for the sake of art, but for the sake of returning your talent increased to the invisible God to use or not use as he sees fit. Flannery O'Connor
I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil. I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow. Flannery O'Connor
There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the presence of a gift. It is the nature of fiction not to be good for much unless it is good in itself. Flannery O'Connor
Writing this, he had reached the pit of despair and he thought that reading it, she would at least begin to sense his tragedy and her part in it. It was not that she had ever forced her way on him. That had never been necessary. Her way had simply been the air he breathed and when at last he had found other air, he couldn't survive in it. He felt that even if she didn't understand at once, the letter would leave her with an enduring chill and perhaps in time lead her to see herself as she was. Flannery O'Connor
People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them. They don’t take long looks at anything, because they lack the courage. The way to despair is to refuse to have any kind of experience, and the novel, of course, is a way to have experience. Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor quote: "I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best."
I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best. Flannery O'Connor
I don’t believe in classes where students criticize each other’s manuscripts. Such criticism is generally composed in equal parts of ignorance, flattery, and spite. It’s the blind leading the blind, and it can be dangerous. A teacher who tries to impose a way of writing on you can be dangerous, too. Flannery O'Connor
I have enough energy to write with and as that is all I have any business doing anyhow, I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing. Flannery O'Connor
People without hope do not write novels … [Writing fiction] is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system. If the novelist is not sustained by a hope of money, then he must be sustained by a hope of salvation, or he simply won’t survive the ordeal. Flannery O'Connor
[W]hat one has as a born Catholic is something given and accepted before it is experienced. I am only slowly coming to experience things that I have all along accepted. I suppose the fullest writing comes from what has been accepted and experienced both and that I have just not got that far yet all the time. Conviction without experience makes for harshness. Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor quote: "People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is..."
People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them. Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor quote: "Not-writing is a good deal worse than writing."
Not-writing is a good deal worse than writing. Flannery O'Connor

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