From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited any readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire. Pat Conroy More Quotes by Pat Conroy More Quotes From Pat Conroy But no one walks out of his family without reprisals: a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters. Pat Conroy army walks compassion The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life. Pat Conroy greatness laziness mean The mind is an intricate mechanism that can be run on the fuels of both victory and defeatism. Pat Conroy victory mind running You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves. Pat Conroy light writing interesting Cameras are a lifesaver for very shy people who have nowhere else to hide. Behind a lens they can disguise the fact that they have nothing to say to strangers. Pat Conroy lenses cameras people It did not look like the work of God, but it might have represented the handicraft of a God with a joyous sense of humor, a dancing God who loved mischief as much as prayer, and playfulness as much as mischief. Pat Conroy dancing prayer looks I would always be a better hater of things and institutions than a lover of them. Pat Conroy institutions lovers Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. Pat Conroy form writing thinking Rape is a crime against sleep and memory; it's afterimage imprints itself like an irreversible negative from the camera obscura of dreams. Pat Conroy dream sleep memories There are no ideas in the South, just barbecue. Pat Conroy barbecue south ideas Good coaching is good teaching and nothing else. Pat Conroy good-teaching coaching teaching Every woman I had ever met who walked through the world appraised and classified by an extraordinary physicality had also received the keys to an unbearable solitude. It was the coefficient of their beauty, the price they had to pay. Pat Conroy solitude keys pay These are the quicksilver moments of my childhood I cannot remember entirely. Irresistible and emblematic, I can recall them only in fragments and shivers of the heart. Pat Conroy childhood heart remember A library could show you everything if you knew where to look. Pat Conroy library shows looks Red Hook Road made me happy, and happy to be alive. It took me out of my home on the coast of South Carolina, placed me in the town along Red hook Road, and changed me the way good books always do. Pat Conroy south-carolina home book Happiness is an accident of nature, a beautiful and flawless aberration. Pat Conroy happy beautiful happiness Honor is the presence of God in man. Pat Conroy presence-of-god honor men When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children Pat Conroy dad mom children All life connects ... Nothing happens that is meaningless. Pat Conroy things-happen happens life Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends. Pat Conroy vacation adventure travel