Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connorwas an American writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, she wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. Her writing also reflected her own Roman Catholic faith and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics. Her posthumously-compiled Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Book...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 March 1925
CitySavannah, GA
CountryUnited States of America
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul.
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.
Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.
Sickness is a place, ... and it's always a place where there's no company, where nobody can follow.
You shall know the truth, and it will make you odd.
Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an artificial, destructive, and very limited way.
A working knowledge of the devil can be very well had from resisting him.
It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes.
When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.
Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me.
I was a very ancient twelve; my views at that age would have done credit to a Civil War veteran. I am much younger now than I was at twelve or anyway, less burdened. The weight of the centuries lies on children, I'm sure of it.
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.
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