35 Best Flannery O'Connor Quotes From The American Novelist
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Mary Flannery O'Connor was a famous American Novelist and short story writer.
She studied at the Georgia State college for women and graduated in 1945. She pursued her Bachelors degree in Sociology and English literature.
Her famous novels include 'Wise Blood' and 'The Violent Bear It Away'. Some of her popular short stories are 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find' and 'Everything That Rises Must Converge'. The following are some of the best quotes from the American novelist.
If you like this article about Flannery O'Connor quotes, you may also want to check our other quotes articles 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find' quotes and William Faulkner quotes.
Best Flannery O'Connor Quotes
Here you will find Flannery O'Connor quotes about writing.
1. “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.
2. “The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
3. "Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."
- Flannery O'Connor.
4. “In yourself right now is all the place you've got.”
- Flannery O'Connor, 'Wise Blood'.
5. "'Nothing is like it used to be, lady,' he said. 'The world is almost rotten.'”
- Flannery O'Connor.
6. "It is the business of the artist to uncover the strangeness of truth."
- Flannery O'Connor.
7. "Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you."
- Flannery O'Connor.
8. “I write to discover what I know.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
9. “There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored."
- Flannery O'Connor.
10. "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.
11. "Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do."
- Flannery O'Connor.
12. “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.”
- Flannery O'Connor, 'The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor'.
13. "To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks."
- Flannery O'Connor.
14. "When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville."
- Flannery O'Connor.
15. “I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
16. "I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial."
- Flannery O'Connor.
17. "The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning."
- Flannery O'Connor.
Famous Flannery O'Connor Quotes
Here are some of the popular quotes by the author about writing, the difficulties and triumphs of writing, and ways in which to motivate yourself to do better.
18. “The modern hero is the outsider. His experience is rootless. He can go anywhere.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
19. “The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
20. "The Southerner is usually tolerant of those weaknesses that proceed from innocence."
- Flannery O'Connor.
21. “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
22. "Today novels are considered to be entirely concerned with the social or economic or psychological forces that they will by necessity exhibit, or with those details of daily life that are for the good novelist only means to some deeper end."
- Flannery O'Connor.
23. “People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
24. "The novelist is required to create the illusion of a whole world with believable people in it, and the chief difference between the novelist who is an orthodox Christian and the novelist who is merely a naturalist is that the Christian novelist lives in a larger universe."
- Flannery O'Connor.
25. "Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me."
- Flannery O'Connor.
26. "A God you understood would be less than yourself."
- Flannery O'Connor.
27. “Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay."
- Flannery O'Connor.
28. “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
29. "When a reader reads a novel, he wants either his sense tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
30. "The straightforward manner is seldom equal to the complications of the good subject. There may never be anything new to say, but there is always a new way to say it, and since, in art, the way of saying a thing becomes a part of what is said, every work of art is unique and requires fresh attention."
- Flannery O'Connor.
Flannery O'Connor Quotes About Love And Artists
Here you will find love quotes by Flannery O'Connor. These are some famous quotes on love, the artist, and on death as well, while keeping it modest.
31. “The artist uses his reason to discover an answering reason in everything he sees."
- Flannery O'Connor.
32. “To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.”
- Flannery O'Connor.
33. "Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not."
- Flannery O'Connor.
34. "Conviction without experience makes for harshness."
- Flannery O'Connor.
35. "She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr."
- Flannery O'Connor.
36. "The scientist has the habit of science; the artist, the habit of art."
- Flannery O'Connor.
37. "The reality of death has come upon us and a consciousness of the power of God has broken our complacency like a bullet in the side.
A sense of the dramatic, of the tragic, of the infinite, has descended upon us, filling us with grief, but even above grief, wonder. Our plans were so beautifully laid out, ready to be carried to action, but with magnificent certainty God laid them aside and said, 'You have forgotten - Mine?'"
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Flannery O'Connor quotes then why not take a look at Cormac McCarthy quotes or John Steinbeck quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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