Flannery O'Connor

The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.

Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers.

I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.

Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.

It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.

To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.

All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.