12 Right-on-the-Money Quotes from Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the best Catholic writers of the 20th century. And she had quite the wit…
[See also: 19 of the Most Refreshingly Commonsensical G.K. Chesterton Quotes]
[See also: The 26 Best Quotes from C.S. Lewis’ Masterpiece Mere Christianity]
1) “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
2) “Even the ones who report favorably don’t seem to have read the book.” [regarding book reviews]
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
3) “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
4) “She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything.”
Everything that Rises Must Converge
5) “It began to drizzle rain and he turned on the windshield wipers; they made a great clatter like two idiots clapping in church.”
Wise Blood
6) “I must tell you how I work. I don’t have my novel outlined and 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 over again.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
7) “I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
8) “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
9) “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
10) “I write to discover what I know.”
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
11) “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
12) “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.”
Mystery and Manners