Quotessence
Home / Authors / Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPat ConroyWritingIfsBookThinkingTidesMenStoriesCharlestonChildhoodFormSouthSouth CarolinaSouthernWayCarolinaKnowsReadingWorldChildren

Famous Pat Conroy Quotes

“There was a time when a new deputy tried to teach Mr. Fruit about the difference between a red and a green light, but Mr. Fruit had resisted all efforts to reorder what he had been doing perfectly well for many years. He had not only monitored the comings and goings of the town, his presence softened the ingrained evil that flourished along the invisible margins of the town’s consciousness. Any community can be judged in its humanity or corruption by how it manages to accommodate the Mr. Fruits of the world. Colleton simply adjusted itself to Mr. Fruit’s harmonies and ordinations. He did whatever he felt was needed and he did it with style. “That’s the Southern way” my grandmother said. “That’s the nice way.”

KindnessSouthernEccentricityPat Conroy
Book:The Prince of Tides
Create image

“My career still strikes me as miraculous. That a boy raised on Marine bases in the South, taught by Roman Catholic nuns in backwater Southern towns that loathed Catholics, and completed his education with an immersion into The Citadel—the whole story sounds fabricated, impossible even to me. Maybe especially to me.”

GratitudeSouthernMarinesPat ConroyCitadel
Book:A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life
Create image

“William Ferris has long reigned as the unimpeachable source of the entire southern experience. His work on southern folklore and the composition of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture have made him both legendary and necessary. His book, The Storied South , is a love song to the South Bill helped illuminate. It's a crowning achievement of his own storied career.”

LongMadeBookSongCultureCareersSourceAchievementBillsSouthSouthernCompositionFolkloreLegendaryEncyclopediaSouthern Culture
Author:Pat Conroy
Create image

“To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'”

MemoriesGrowing UpGrowingChildhoodTasteSpringBlueSilentSouthKneesNovelistsOccupationSouthernShellsMudCarolinaOystersChildhood MemoriesHensSouth CarolinaMarshesChildren Growing UpSpring DayHerons
Book:The Prince of Tides: A Novel
Create image