Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Flannery O'Connor

Not-writing is a good deal worse than writing.
-Flannery O'Connor

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.
-Flannery O'Connor

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 that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.
-Flannery O'Connor

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 what the meaning is.
-Flannery O'Connor

I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.
-Flannery O'Connor

I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.
-Flannery O'Connor

I write to discover what I know.
-Flannery O'Connor

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

The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.
-Flannery O'Connor

1 comment:

charles said...

i would like to report high enthusiasm for Brad Gooch's "Flannery." I was prepared to avoid that for several reasons - the Catholic issue, the race issue, etc. I think he managed them all without inspiring tears,anger,disgust, triviality. Gooch was lucky to be dealing w/ the "old order" of the paper trail.