“She had a grocer's faith in books; they can be handed out like Green Stamps and were redeemable for a variety of… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Reading is the most rewarding form of exile and the most necessary discipline for novelists who burn with the ambition to get… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“You get a little moody sometimes but I think that's because you like to read. People that like to read are always… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
When I was 5 years old, my mother read me 'Gone With The Wind' at night, before I went to bed. I… — 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 selected all my books for the possibility of some flare of candles along the road toward illumination or enchantment” — 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
“Read the great books, gentlemen,” Mr. Monte said one day. “Just the great ones. Ignore the others. There’s not enough time.” — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I can't pass a bookstore without slipping inside, looking for the next book that will burn my hand when I touch its… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Few things linger longer or become more indwelling than that feeling of both completion and emptiness when a great book ends. That… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“A novelist must wrestle with all mysteries and strangeness of life itself, and anyone who dies not wish to accept that grand,… — 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
From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited any readers who chose to make… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“In our modern age, there are writers who have heaped scorn on the very idea of the primacy of story. I'd rather… — 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
Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Do you think that Hemingway knew he was a writer at twenty years old? No, he did not. Or Fitzgerald, or Wolfe.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
When I bought a collection of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, I returned home with a bright enthusiasm to begin the long march into… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Books are living things and their task lies in their vows of silence. You touch them as they quiver with divine pleasure.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“That's what a good book does-it puts readers on their knees. It makes you want to believe in a world you just… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
My great fear of being attacked or trivialized by my contemporaries made me concentrate on what I was trying to do as… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into a lucid form and… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“You have to pay for this view (onto which he looks while writing), so our expenses keep us pretty motivated to write.… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“When you write by hand, you don't have the excessive freedom of a computer. When I write down something, I have to… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“I have built a city from the books I've read. A good book sings a a timeless music that is heard in… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
“I had declared in public my desire to be a writer ... I wanted to develop a curiosity that was oceanic and… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
I've met many, many writers who say they would never write about their family, never write about people they did not totally… — 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
“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
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
