People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them. They don’t take long looks at anything, because they lack the courage. The way to despair is to refuse to have any kind of experience, and the novel, of course, is a way to have experience.
Flannery O'ConnorI don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.
Flannery O'ConnorWhere you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it
Flannery O'ConnorSo many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence.
Flannery O'ConnorYou can't clobber any reader while he's looking. You divert his attention, then you clobber him and he never knows what hit him.
Flannery O'Connor