There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. Flannery O'Connor More Quotes by Flannery O'Connor More Quotes From Flannery O'Connor The idea of being a writer attracts a good many shiftless people, those who are merely burdened with poetic feelings or afflicted with sensibility. Flannery O'Connor feelings people ideas The fiction writer has to engage in a continual examination of conscience. He has to be aware of the freak in himself. Flannery O'Connor examination freak fiction Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12 I am there ready for it. Flannery O'Connor doe morning ideas You don't serve God by saying: the Church is ineffective, I'll have none of it. Your pain at its lack of effectiveness is a sign of your nearness to God. We help overcome this lack of effectiveness simply by suffering on account of it. Flannery O'Connor effectiveness pain suffering Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it. Flannery O'Connor effort creativity art I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one. Then they find themselves writing a sketch with an essay woven through it, or an essay with a sketch woven through it, or an editorial with a character in it, or a case history with a moral, or some other mongrel thing. Flannery O'Connor writing character people I spend three hours a day writing and the rest of my day getting over it. Flannery O'Connor hours three writing I love a lot of people, understand none of them. Flannery O'Connor people 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 writing life fall At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily. Flannery O'Connor despair literature age Southern culture has fostered a type of imagination that has been influenced by Christianity of a not too unorthodox kind and by a strong devotion to the Bible, which has kept our minds attached to the concrete and the living symbol. Flannery O'Connor strong imagination life If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now. Flannery O'Connor fighting church nihilism Christianity is a strangely cheery religion. Flannery O'Connor theologian christianity When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God's business. Flannery O'Connor writing book thinking There is a question whether faith can or is supposed to be emotionally satisfying. I must say that the thought of everyone lolling about in an emotionally satisfying faith is repugnant to me. I believe that we are ultimately directed Godward but that this journey is often impeded by emotion Flannery O'Connor emotion journey believe If it's just a symbol, then Flannery O'Connor symbols hell ifs She was a good Christian woman with a large respect for religion, though she did not, of course, believe any of it was true. Flannery O'Connor christian believe religion Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas. Flannery O'Connor christian writing ideas I know well enough that very few people who are supposedly interested in writing are interested in writing well. They are interested in publishing something, and if possible in making a "killing." They are interested in being a writer not in writing. . . If this is what you are interested in, I am not going to be much use to you. Flannery O'Connor use writing people The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind. Bailey was the son she liver with, her only boy. Flannery O'Connor grandmother change son
