I think that my mother, Frances Dorothy Peck, modeled her whole life on that of Scarlett O'Hara. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“The porpoise has always been a sign of renewal and of the charged magical life.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“He lived out his whole life as an anthem to the pleasures of a bad mood.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“I take account of my life and find that I have lived a lot and learned very little.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I lived with the terrible knowledge that one day I would be an old man still waiting for my real life to… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“My irritation with Niles was growing, though. I had always thought the quiet man was the most overrated form of human life".” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Fear is the major cargo that American writers must stow away when the writing life calls them into its carefully chosen ranks.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I wrote to explain my own life to myself, stories are the vessels I use to interpret the world to myself. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
College was to teach me that I was one of life's journeymen, eager to excel but lacking the requisite gifts. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“that life was good, but it was hard; we would prepare to meet it head on, but we would enjoy the preparation.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Some things don’t mix. Some things don’t mix at all, but sometimes in life you have to take the risk. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
The safe places could only be visited; they could only grant a momentary intuition of sanctuary. The moment always came when we… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“The whole construct of my universe was a cunning, entangled network of lies. I had to start over again. I knew that.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
No story is a straight line. The geometry of a human life is too imperfect and complex, too distorted by the laughter… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“If I catch a fish before the sun rises, I have connected myself again to the deep hum of the planet. If… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Even today, I hunt for the fabulous books that will change me utterly. I find myself happiest in the middle of a… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
A novel is a great act of passion and intellect, carpentry and largess. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“The moment you are born your death is foretold by your newly minted cells as your mother holds you up, then hands… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Writers of the world, if you’ve got a story, I want to hear it. I promise it will follow me to my… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“We began our life together at a moment of natural self-pity and defeat that left an inimitable impression on both of us.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“These are the moments of surprise and consecration that hold me forever in debt and bondage to the memories I bring to… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
The University of South Carolina has always played a role in my life and the intellectual life of South Carolina. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I think I learned about the relationship between books and life from Margaret Mitchell. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I have found human nature a bit contradictory in my living of it. Human life is incredibly strange. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“My mother saw in 'Gone With the Wind' the text of liberating herself, ... She took 'Gone With the Wind' as the… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“There were far worse strategies in life than to try to make each aspect of one's existence a minor work of art.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“But let me begin with a statement of my own passionate and indignant belief--I do not care one goddamned thing about how… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
My attraction to story is a ceaseless current that runs through the center of me. My inexhaustible ardor for reading seems connected… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life. I… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
It's an article of faith that the novels I've loved will live inside me forever. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“my folks wouldn't read a book if you put a gun to their dicks. but they read people all day long and always get… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Cameras are a lifesaver for very shy people who have nowhere else to hide. Behind a lens they can disguise the fact that they… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Carolina beach music," Dupree said, coming up on the porch. "The holiest sound on earth. — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“My memory often seems like a city of exiled poets afire with the astonishment of language, each believing in the integrity of his own… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“We began our life together at a moment of natural self-pity and defeat that left an inimitable impression on both of us. The rejection… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“I always liked your piety, Jack.” “I’m a lot cuter than the women of your generation,” Betsy said, playing up to Capers and Mike.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“From the beginning I've searched out those writers unafraid to stir up the emotions, who entrust me with their darkest passions, their most indestructible… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“My mother's voice and my father's fists are two bookends of my childhood, and they form the basis of my art.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Over the years, my church gave me passage into a menagerie of exotic words unknown in the South: "introit," "offertory," "liturgy," "movable feast," "the… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
