« All Fiction Quotes · Flannery O'Connor's Page
Fiction Quotes by Flannery O'Connor
- The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where the human perception begins. He appeals through the senses, and…
- The fiction writer has to engage in a continual examination of conscience. He has to be aware of the freak in himself.
- 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 anything you can…
- It is popular to believe that in order to see clearly one must believe nothing. This may work well enough if you are observing cells…
- The type of mind that can understand good fiction is not necessarily the educated mind, but it is at all times the kind of mind…
- There are two qualities that make fiction. One is the sense of mystery and the other is the sense of manners. You get the manners…
- A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say…
- It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned…
- 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…
- Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply…
- 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…
- Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write…
- In the greatest fiction, the writer's moral sense coincides with his dramatic sense, and I see no way for it to do this unless his…
- There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is the quality of having to stare, of…
- The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the…
More Fiction Quotes
- I'd love to do a movie where the monster is human, where the issue is not otherworldly, or horror or science fiction. — J. J. Abrams
- The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I'm talking about myself very directly. — Paul Auster
- Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core… — Isaac Asimov
- Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. — Isaac Asimov
- Because I write fiction, I don't write autobiography, and to me they are very different things. The first-person narrative is a very… — Kate Atkinson
- Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas… — Margaret Atwood
- Science fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that. — Margaret Atwood
- Science fiction, to me, has not only things that wouldn't happen, but other planets. — Margaret Atwood
- Speculative fiction encompasses that which we could actually do. Sci-fi is that which we're probably not going to see. — Margaret Atwood
- All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters… — Margaret Atwood
- Fiction is not necessarily about what you know, it's about how you feel. That is the truth about fiction, and the other… — Margaret Atwood
- I hate to tell you this, but you will never actually go to a galaxy far, far away and encounter Darth Vader.… — Margaret Atwood