Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute. Flannery O'Connor More Quotes by Flannery O'Connor More Quotes From Flannery O'Connor Everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him. Flannery O'Connor pleasure She felt that she would have to be much more than just a doctor or an engineer. She would have to be a saint. Flannery O'Connor doctorsengineerssaint Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead," The Misfit continued, "and He shouldn't have done it. He shown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness," he said and his voice had become almost a snarl. Flannery O'Connor voicehousejesus When I was six I had a chicken that walked backward and was in the Pathe News. I was in it too with the chicken. I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been anticlimax. Flannery O'Connor chickensnewssix Harcourt sent my book to Evelyn Waugh and his comment was: “If this is really the unaided work of a young lady, it is a remarkable product.” My mother was vastly insulted. She put the emphasis on if and lady. Does he suppose you’re not a lady? she says. Flannery O'Connor ifs-andmotherbook You know," Daddy said, "it's some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it's others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. He's going to be into everything! Flannery O'Connor daddyaskingboys [Simone Weil's] life is almost a perfect blend of the Comic and the Terrible, which two things may be opposite sides of the same coin. In my own experience, everything funny I have written is more terrible than it is funny, or only funny because it is terrible, or only terrible because it is funny. Flannery O'Connor perfectoppositestwo No art is sunk in the self, but rather, in art the self becomes self-forgetful in order to meet the demands of the thing seen and the thing being made. Flannery O'Connor Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a constructive way that she never felt the lack. Flannery O'Connor qualityusepeople Not-writing is a good deal worse than writing. Flannery O'Connor dealswriting In the first place you can be so absolutely honest and so absolutely wrong at the same time that I think it is better to be a combination of cautious and polite Flannery O'Connor honestfirststhinking To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness. Flannery O'Connor too-muchviewslife Technique in the minds of many is something rigid, something like a formula that you impose on the material; but in the best stories it is something organic, something that grows out of the material, and this being the case, it is different for every story of any account that has ever been written. Flannery O'Connor techniquemindwriting You get a real person down there and his talking will take care of itself. Flannery O'Connor realwritingtalking When using dialect, use it lightly. A dialect word here and there is enough. All you want to do is suggest. Never let it call attention to itself. Flannery O'Connor here-and-therewritingattention It is a good deal easier for most people to state an abstract idea than to describe and thus re-create some object they actually see. Flannery O'Connor writingpeopleideas As for the blood and the head business, the blood and the head work together and what is not first in the blood can sometimes reach it by going first through the head and what is wrong in the blood can sometimes be tempered by the head. Flannery O'Connor working-togetherwritingblood The mind serves best when it's anchored in the Word of God. There is no danger then of becoming an intellectual without integrity. Flannery O'Connor intellectualmindintegrity The less self-conscious you are about what you are about, the better in a way, that is to say technically. You have to get it in your blood, not in the head. Flannery O'Connor selfwritingblood I believe the teacher's work is largely negative, that it is largely a matter of saying, "This doesn't work because ..." or "This does work because ..." The because is very important. The teacher can help you understand the nature of your medium, and he can guide you in your reading. Flannery O'Connor readingteachingteacher
