Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Flannery O'Connor

Quote by Flannery O'Connor

Work

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

This book is a compilation of essays that delve into a range of topics, offering insights into the author's perspectives on literature, art, and personal anecdotes. more

Author

Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor was an American writer known for her unique Southern background and profound religious themes. Her works often explore moral and religious issues through satire and humor, with her novels 'Wise Blood' and 'The Violent Bear It Away' being among her most famous. more

You May Also Like

“The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it's about and why you're doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising ("but of course that's why he was doing that, and that means that...") and it's magic and wonderful and strange.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsWritingMeanMomentsStoriesCoursesFictionAudienceFireWonderfulMagicStrangePagesObviousCreatorMake SenseBest ThingsThat MomentSurprisingWriting FictionSaying And Doing
Author:Neil Gaiman
Create image

“Would-be novelists need to bring equal parts arrogance and ignorance to the task before them. The arrogance is almost self-explanatory. Walk into any bookstore or library, calculate how many lifetimes the average person would need to read all the fiction contained therein. To think that one has anything to contribute, to any genre or tradition, takes genuine hubris.”

ThinkingNeedsWritingPersonsSelfWould BeWalksFictionIgnoranceEqualTraditionTasksLifetimeLibraryAverageGenuineGenreNovelistsArroganceBookstoresAverage PersonHubris
Author:Laura Lippman
Create image

“It's not that you get a cliché and then wiggle it about or use synonyms. You don't take an ordinary decorative paragraph and give it style. What you're trying to do is be faithful to your perceptions and transmit them as faithfully as you can. I say these sentences until they sound right. There's no objective reason why they're right. They just sound right to me.”

GivingWritingTryingReasonUseSoundStylePerceptionOrdinarySentencesObjectivesReason WhyFaithfulParagraphTransmitBeing FaithfulSynonym
Author:Martin Amis
Create image

“You don't realize what a strain it is on the nerves to write or think-of-writing all day long, and to sleep full of nervous dreams, and to wake up not knowing who one is: this all stems from anxiety about finishing the book, about time 'growing short', etc., and the perpetual strain of invention.”

ThinkingWritingLongBookDreamRealizingSleepKnowingGrowingAnxietyWake UpInventionNervousEtcNervesPerpetualNot KnowingStemStrainFinishing
Book:Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954
Create image