... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.
Flannery O'ConnorPurity strikes me as the most mysterious of the virtues and the more I think about it the less I know about it.
Flannery O'ConnorIt 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.
Flannery O'ConnorEven in the life of a Christian, faith rises and falls like the tides of an invisible sea. It's there, even when he can't see it or feel it, if he wants it to be there. You realize, I think, that it is more valuable, more mysterious, altogether more immense than anything you can learn or decide upon It will keep you free - not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your own intellect or the intellects around you.
Flannery O'Connor