The old woman was the kind who would not cut down a large old tree because it was a large old tree.
Flannery O'ConnorI find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one. Then they find themselves writing a sketch with an essay woven through it, or an essay with a sketch woven through it, or an editorial with a character in it, or a case history with a moral, or some other mongrel thing.
Flannery O'ConnorIt's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much.
Flannery O'Connor