Flannery O'Connor Quotes
I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.
Quotes to Explore
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Remember who you are and where you come from; otherwise, you don't know where you are going.
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I don't know who took what. That is pretty private with an individual.
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I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word. I say something I didn't think through adequately. I mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the teleprompter, you know. I wing it.
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Let us not be so naive as to think that revolution is just a matter of social or economic discontent.
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This is part of what's driving me, is this feeling like there's so much yet to be discovered in the oceans, and we're destroying it before we even know what's in it.
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I really feel very strongly that the person who runs for office is the courageous one, and the one who everybody has to know.
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There's always going to be a little bit of autobiographical content to everything. It's how you lend some authority to what you write - you give it that weight by drawing on your direct experiences and indirect experiences from people that you know well, or a little.
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I've got nothing very original to say myself.
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The reason I don't carry a mobile phone is I don't want people to know where I am!
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I'm proud to say I've never been anybody's lapdog.
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Life histories tell you just about everything you need to know about an animal.
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In the streets, they're very nice. On Twitter, there are people who love to hate me. Sometimes people get mean. I tend to answer like, 'Careful now, know who you're dealing with...' They're like, 'I'm sorry! Don't send the Lord of Light after me!' It's fun to play with that.
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I am a being of Heaven and Earth, of thunder and lightning, of rain and wind, of the galaxies.
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Women have to be active listeners and interrupters - but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.
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I like to put a stake in people, because I know people helped me.
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Readers of novels often fall into the bad habit of being overly exacting about the characters' moral flaws. They apply to these fictional beings standards that no one they know in real life could possibly meet.
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Most artists like to think of themselves as rugged individualists, as independent characters.
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Know or listen to those who know.
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Writing is like a 'lust,' or like 'scratching when you itch.' Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.
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Whenever you write for someone else, you're always aware - sometimes overtly, other times at an almost cellular, subliminal level - of the rules about what you can and can't do.
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I start writing with only the vaguest idea about who my characters are and what is going to happen, and the characters and plot come into existence as I go. I've tried doing it the other way, but for me, outlining is a waste of time because I never follow the outline.
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I want to have fun. It's a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.
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Producing is a world of compromise and actors are utterly spoiled all the time.
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I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.
