If you don't hunt it down and kill it, it will hunt you down and kill you. Flannery O'Connor More Quotes by Flannery O'Connor More Quotes From Flannery O'Connor Far be it for me to have worked it out in any abstract way. I don't know why the bull and Mrs. May have to die, or why Mr. Fortune and Mary Fortune: I just feel in my bones that that is the way it has to be. If I had the abstraction first I don't suppose I would write the story. Flannery O'Connor empathy apathy writing 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 under a microscope. It will not work if you are writing fiction. For the fiction writer, to believe nothing is to see nothing. Flannery O'Connor cells writing believe The Bible was the only book he read. He didn't read it often but when he did he wore his mother's glasses. They tired his eyes so that after a short time he was always obliged to stop. Flannery O'Connor tired mother book He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him. Flannery O'Connor giants broken feelings 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 not getting the point at once. The longer you look at one object, the more of the world you see in it; and it's well to remember that the serious fiction writer always writes about the whole world. Flannery O'Connor quality stupidity writing ...free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. Flannery O'Connor doe men mean Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing. Flannery O'Connor substitutes light belief It's easier to bleed than sweat, Mr. Motes. Flannery O'Connor hardship sweat easier Nobody with a good car needs to be justified. Flannery O'Connor justified car needs She was a talker, wasn't she?" Bobby Lee said, sliding down the ditch with a yodel. "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." "Some fun!" Bobby Lee said. "Shut up, Bobby Lee," The Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in life. Flannery O'Connor good-woman real fun I do not like the raw sound of the human voice in unison unless it is under the discipline of music. Flannery O'Connor discipline voice sound Doctors always think anybody doing something they aren't is a quack; also they think all patients are idiots. Flannery O'Connor doctors patient thinking Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better. Flannery O'Connor success happiness life Children know by instinct that hell is an absence of love, and they can pick out theirs without missing. Flannery O'Connor hell missing children ...I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it again. Flannery O'Connor old-lady writing thinking So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence. Flannery O'Connor dying writing people She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity. Flannery O'Connor smell nice men He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery. Flannery O'Connor endure idiot mystery It began to drizzle rain and he turned on the windshield wipers; they made a great clatter like two idiots clapping in church. Flannery O'Connor church rain two I have almost no capacity for worship. What I have is the knowledge that it is my duty to worship and worship only what I believe to be true.” May 19, 1962 Flannery O'Connor worship may believe
