I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.” (August 9, 1955) — Flannery O'Connor August Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by… — Flannery O'Connor Books Copy Share Image
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
“Did you see the picture of Roy Rogers's horse attending a church service in Pasadena? I forgot whether his name was Tex… — Flannery O'Connor Church service Copy Share Image
The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the… — Flannery O'Connor Fiction Copy Share Image
The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location. — Flannery O'Connor Crossroads Copy Share Image
The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where the human perception begins. He appeals through… — Flannery O'Connor Abstraction Copy Share Image
“Listen here, Mr. Shiftlet," she said, sliding forward in her chair, "you'd be getting a permanent house and a deep well and… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
[Simone Weil's] life is almost a perfect blend of the Comic and the Terrible, which two things may be opposite sides of… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
There are two qualities that make fiction. One is the sense of mystery and the other is the sense of manners. You… — Flannery O'Connor Abundance Copy Share Image
...the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
Once the process [of conversion] is begun and continues...you are continually turning inward toward God and away from your own egocentricity...you have… — Flannery O'Connor Communication Copy Share Image
When the peacock has presented his back, the spectator will usually begin to walk around him to get a front view; but… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
The high-school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a guided opportunity, through the best writing of… — Flannery O'Connor Democracy Copy Share Image
“Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no… — Flannery O'Connor Life Copy Share Image
A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
“I have 50 or 60 pages on the [new] novel but I still expect to be a long time at it. It’s… — Flannery O'Connor Books Copy Share Image
“The world was made for the dead. Think of all the dead there are...There's a million times more dead than living and… — Flannery O'Connor And Copy Share Image
“Do you think, Mr. Motes,” she said hoarsely, “that when you’re dead, you’re blind?” “I hope so,” he said after a minute.… — Flannery O'Connor Blind Copy Share Image
Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
We are not judged by what we are basically. We are judged by how hard we use what we have been given.… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
“You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
My own approach to literary problems is very like the one Dr. Johnson's blind housekeeper used when she poured tea-she put her… — Flannery O'Connor Approach Copy Share Image
She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse… — Flannery O'Connor Education Copy Share Image
“The reader may not see [these meanings], but they have their effect on him nonetheless. This is the way the modern novelist… — Flannery O'Connor Books Copy Share Image
The Catholic writer, in so far as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the… — Flannery O'Connor Catholic Copy Share Image
... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will… — Flannery O'Connor Afterlife Copy Share Image
“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief'... is the most natural and most human and most agonizing prayer in the gospels, and I… — Flannery O'Connor Belief Copy Share Image
“As was usual with him, he began with the least important thing and worked around and in toward the center where the… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
No art is sunk in the self, but rather, in art the self becomes self-forgetful in order to meet the demands of… — Flannery O'Connor Art Copy Share Image
“His black hat sat on his head with a careful, placed expression and his face had a fragile look as if it… — Flannery O'Connor Mind Copy Share Image
There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just… — Flannery O'Connor Crafts Copy Share Image
The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was… — Flannery O'Connor Bailey Copy Share Image
It is a good deal easier for most people to state an abstract idea than to describe and thus re-create some object… — Flannery O'Connor Abstract Copy Share Image
That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," and he drove off with… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
I am no disbeliever in spiritual purpose and no vague believer. I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means that… — Flannery O'Connor Believer Copy Share Image
“If a writer is any good, what he makes will have its source in a realm much larger than that which his… — Flannery O'Connor Books Copy Share Image
It's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do… — Flannery O'Connor Always wrong Copy Share Image
![“[Simone Weil's] life is almost a perfect blend of the Comic and the Terrible, which two things may be opposite sides of the same coin. In my own experience, everything funny I have written is more terrible than it is funny, or only funny because it is terrible, or only terrible because it is funny.” quote by Flannery O'Connor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/b7c/flannery-o-connor-639_coins_simone-weil-s-life-is-almost-a-perfect-b_165781.png)
![“Once the process [of conversion] is begun and continues...you are continually turning inward toward God and away from your own egocentricity...you have to see this selfish side of yourself in order to turn away from it. I measure God by everything I am not. I begin with that.” quote by Flannery O'Connor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ee1/flannery-o-connor-639_communication_once-the-process-of-conversion-is-begun_2834541.png)
![“I have 50 or 60 pages on the [new] novel but I still expect to be a long time at it. It’s a theme that requires prayer and fasting to make it get anywhere. I manage to pray but am a very sloppy faster.” quote by Flannery O'Connor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c60/flannery-o-connor-639_books_i-have-50-or-60-pages-on-the-new-novel-b_2463173.png)
![“The reader may not see [these meanings], but they have their effect on him nonetheless. This is the way the modern novelist sinks, or hides his theme” quote by Flannery O'Connor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/75b/flannery-o-connor-639_books_the-reader-may-not-see-these-meanings-bu_2981946.png)
