Go warn the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy. Flannery O'Connor More Quotes by Flannery O'Connor More Quotes From Flannery O'Connor The reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror. Flannery O'Connor editors horror critics I know that the writer does call up the general and maybe the essential through the particular, but this general and essential is still deeply embedded in mystery. It is not answerable to any of our formulas. Flannery O'Connor essentials doe happiness That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," and he drove off with a look of disgust and righteousness. Flannery O'Connor trouble believe looks 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 philosophical unique art ... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him. Flannery O'Connor afterlife personality men Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part. Flannery O'Connor mines chickens firsts ... the novelist is bound by the reasonable possibilities, not the probabilities, of his culture. Flannery O'Connor possibility novelists culture Tennessee's a hillbilly dumping ground, and Georgia's a lousy state too. Flannery O'Connor hillbilly georgia tennessee Being a Georgia author is a rather specious dignity, on the same order as, for the pig, being a Talmadge ham. Flannery O'Connor ham pigs order Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. Flannery O'Connor childhood teaching teacher I don't think literature would be possible in a determined world. We might go through the motions but the heart would be out of it. Nobody could then 'smile darkly and ignore the howls.' Even if there were no Church to teach me this, writing two novels would do it. I think the more you write, the less inclined you will be to rely on theories like determinism. Mystery isn't something that is gradually evaporating. It grows along with knowledge. Flannery O'Connor heart writing thinking ... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life. Flannery O'Connor human-life mystery fiction The novelist is required to open his eyes on the world around him and look. If what he sees is not highly edifying, he is still required to look. Then he is required to reproduce, with words, what he sees. Flannery O'Connor novelists eye truth It is always difficult to get across to people who are not professional writers that a talent to write does not mean a talent to write anything at all. Flannery O'Connor writing mean people Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic. Flannery O'Connor grotesque realistic southern He and the girl had almost nothing to say to each other. One thing he did say was, 'I ain't got any tattoo on my back.' 'What you got on it?' the girl said. 'My shirt,' Parker said. 'Haw.' 'Haw, haw,' the girl said politely. Flannery O'Connor shirts tattoo girl I don't think you should write something as long as a novel around anything that is not of the gravest concern to you and everybody else and for me this is always the conflict between an attraction for the Holy and the disbelief in it that we breathe in with the air of the times. Flannery O'Connor air writing thinking Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe. Flannery O'Connor secure belief sides I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing. Flannery O'Connor i-can eye blessing Poorly written novels--no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters--are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying. Flannery O'Connor behavior matter character
