Flannery O'Connor

"God is not a symbol of goodness; goodness is a symbol of God."

"I write because I don't know what I think until I write it."

"The writer must suffer for his work, and not merely pretend to suffer."

"We are made of dust, and our end is dust."

"Grace is a hard nut to crack, but it's possible."

"One of the oddities of being a writer is that you're working with something that is both very real and very unreal."

"A story always offers hope because it offers change."

"The novelist must be able to sustain his vision through doubt and darkness."

"There are some people who would be offended by virtue itself."

"The writer who loses the ability to be astonished will lose the ability to write."

"To write is to make a judgment about what is true and what is false."

"We cannot live without difficulty; it is what makes us human."

"The Church says 'come,' and we come in full battle array."

"A violent tale will return the reader to the real world."

"Everything that rises must converge."

"I am a Christian, and this means I am obliged by my faith to tell the truth."

"The writer must work with the materials at hand, which are most often the materials of failure."

"We live in our own blindness, and only grace can open our eyes."

"Good writing is not about being good; it's about being true."

"The novelist is responsible for the whole human condition, not just parts of it."

"If you cannot imagine yourself going through something, you cannot write about it."

"The reader must always be the one to make the final judgment."

"We live in a time of rotten manners."

"Art is not a mere ornament; it is a necessity of the soul."

"The writer's responsibility is to tell the truth, however unpopular it may be."

"In the end, we are all alone with our choices."

"The grotesque is a bridge between the real and the transcendent."

"To be a writer is to be at war with the world."

"Grace comes to those who are broken enough to receive it."

"The writer's true subject is always human suffering and redemption."