Once the process [of conversion] is begun and continues...you are continually turning inward toward God and away from your own egocentricity...you have to see this selfish side of yourself in order to turn away from it. I measure God by everything I am not. I begin with that.
Flannery O'ConnorWoman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!
Flannery O'ConnorThe problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man's encounter with God is how he shall make the experience--which is both natural and supernatural--understandable, and credible, to his reader. In any age this would be a problem, but in our own, it is a well- nigh insurmountable one. Today's audience is one in which religious feeling has become, if not atrophied, at least vaporous and sentimental.
Flannery O'ConnorWriting a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.
Flannery O'Connor