There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive a...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR In yourself right now is all the place you've got.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church t...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Chris...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't s...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a const...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I write to discover what I know.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I s...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay....
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Grace changes us and change is painful".
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The high-school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is t...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an arti...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR She would've been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers w...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," a...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the fles...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The truth is not distorted here, but rather a distortion is used to get at truth.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR There are some of us who have to pay for our faith every step of the way and who have to work out dr...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR We lost our innocence in the Fall, and our turn to it is through the Redemption which was brought ab...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Satisfy your demand for reason but always remember that charity is beyond reason, and God can be kno...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding a...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of compete...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR From 15 to 18 is an age at which one is very sensitive to the sins of others, as I know from recolle...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR [W]hat one has as a born Catholic is something given and accepted before it is experienced. I am onl...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I'm always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It i...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR In any case, you can't have effective allegory in times when people are swept this way and that by m...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Week before last I went to Wesleyan and read “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” After it I went to on...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The boy knew that escaping school was the surest sign of his election.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't sti...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The park was the heart of the city. He had come to the city – and with a knowing in his blood – ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR ...sitting with him was like sitting by yourself; he didn't talk except when it suited him. You aske...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR You might as well go one place as another," he said. "That's all I know.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR His friends told him that nobody was interested in his goddam soul unless it was the priest and he m...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Leave!’ Hazel Motes cried. ‘Go ahead and leave! The truth don’t matter to you. Listen,’ he s...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The Bible was the only book he read. He didn't read it often but when he did he wore his mother's gl...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR This shiffer-robe belongs to Hazel Motes. Do not steal it or you will be hunted down and killed.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Listen, friends," said the disciple confidently, " [...] I didn't have a friend in the world. Do you...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free w...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else’s, but behind all of them, the...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR As was usual with him, he began with the least important thing and worked around and in toward the c...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I don't have to run from anything because I don't believe in anything.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I can smell the sin on your breath.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid s...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I'm a member and preacher to that church where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what'...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR It began to drizzle rain and he turned on the windshield wipers; they made a great clatter like two ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he h...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR ...free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be concei...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Her name was Maude and she drank whisky all day from a fruit jar under the counter.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else's, but behind all of them, there...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning hi...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR There are all kinds of truth ... but behind all of them there is only one truth and that is that the...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR It's easier to bleed than sweat, Mr. Motes.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are ...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I do not like the raw sound of the human voice in unison unless it is under the discipline of music.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The fact is that if the writer's attention is on producing a work of art, a work that is good in its...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Now the second common characteristic of fiction follows from this, and it is that fiction is present...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I once received a letter from an old lady in California who informed me that when the tired reader c...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The writer who position is Christian, and probably also the writer whose position is not, will begin...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Unfortunately, to try to disconnect faith from vision is to do violence to the whole personality, an...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The Christian writer will feel that in the greatest depth of vision, moral judgment will be implicit...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR The novelist is required to create the illusion of a whole world with believable people in it, and t...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her l...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Children know by instinct that hell is an absence of love, and they can pick out theirs without miss...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR You know," Daddy said, "it's some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it'...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR He had a winning smile and it was evident that he didn't think he was any better than anybody else e...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to d...
FLANNERY O'CONNOR I am one and when I am one I am none, and when I am none I have won.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR I suppose we all have our little hiding-hole if the truth was known, but as small as it is, the whol...
FRANK O'CONNOR Marry for love. But also choose to marry a man or woman who you love that treats you with the ultima...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR There will be a time when love is beautiful and passionate and nothing else will exist but you and t...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR To love without ownership, to love with total trust and faith in that very love, to love with the sa...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR My feeling on the subject of sex with a man is - don't give it up unless you're willing to give him ...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Life is surreal. When you step back and really take a look at it, the irony is absolute.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Ladies, you have a ton of power if you just understand the fundamental differences between men and w...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Then Dad started going on about the complex geological formations in this part of the coast until Mu...
KERRIE O'CONNOR They had far more in common than either realised. One was born Catholic, the other Protestant. One w...
JOSEPH O'CONNOR Marriage is a blast. Like a bomb.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR It is beyond logic that we see the light.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Whatever it may bring, I will live by my own policies, I will sleep with a clear conscience, I will ...
SINEAD O'CONNOR You'd think that a redheaded boy with glasses who was named Howard and had an up-down walk would hav...
BARBARA O'CONNOR When it comes to happiness, why would anyone want to delay it?
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR There are more gifts in who you are than there are in who you think you want to be.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR In a world full of oddities, it’s how you outdo yourself within your own schizophrenia of abnormal...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Having an emotional connection with what we wear is at once transformative and talismanic. Why else ...
ANNMARIE O'CONNOR I was sweating like Christy Moore at a Feis Ceol, so badly, in fact, I looked like I was sporting a ...
ANNMARIE O'CONNOR Excuses – the great enabler. Without them, we'd have no reason to shop when we shouldn't and every...
ANNMARIE O'CONNOR You know the old adage: give a woman a bag and she'll fill it for a day. Teach a woman to pack and s...
ANNMARIE O'CONNOR But my dear young lady," he said offering a cigarette, "who ever said I have a poor opinion of women...
FRANK O'CONNOR Before you get a bad attitude by drawing recurring conclusions to new situation based on past experi...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Conformism is a potent statement, and as much as we do talk about individuality in fashion, there...
ERIN O'CONNOR So Father Ring went off in the lofty mood of a man who has defended a principle at a great sacrifice...
FRANK O'CONNOR It wasn't the "I love you" she heard that made her let him go. It was the "Come with me" that she di...
MEGHAN O'CONNOR As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my vo...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I seek no longer to be a 'famous' person, and instead I wish to live a 'normal' life...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I only feel better because people aren't being so abusive to me about my weight.
SINEAD O'CONNOR I've been married before, but I've never had my dream wedding in Vegas. I wanted to do it th...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I think there's a difference between God and religion.
SINEAD O'CONNOR I could stand in the street and sing and get enough to pay the bills. I don't need millions of d...
SINEAD O'CONNOR People always complain, 'you never invited me to your wedding', but I prefer casual weddings...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I've been married three times, really I should only have been married once.
SINEAD O'CONNOR If you were the boss of a company and some of the employees of your company were known to sexually a...
SINEAD O'CONNOR As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my vo...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I don't want any man to have control over me.
SINEAD O'CONNOR As long as the house of The Holy Spirit remains a haven for criminals the reputation of the church w...
SINEAD O'CONNOR To say what you feel is to dig your own grave.
SINEAD O'CONNOR There's nothing in the recent past I want to write about.
SINEAD O'CONNOR People who express suicidal feelings are least likely to act on them.
SINEAD O'CONNOR My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart f...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I have no shame around the fact that I can be shot into suicidal feelings by certain people's tr...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I don't feel like me unless I have my hair shaved. So even when I'm an old lady, I'm goi...
SINEAD O'CONNOR My creative process is quite slow. I hear melodies in my head while I'm washing the dishes and I...
SINEAD O'CONNOR When you live with the Devil you learn there's a God very quickly.
SINEAD O'CONNOR When I sing, it's the most solitary state: just me, and the microphone, and the holy spirit. It&...
SINEAD O'CONNOR Nobody gets between me and my microphone.
SINEAD O'CONNOR I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally cause...
SINEAD O'CONNOR When you're young, you don't really know quite what you're aiming at. You're very im...
SINEAD O'CONNOR I'm not going to be singing songs that I made in the past. I closed the door on that incarnation...
SINEAD O'CONNOR Wasted tries, The many whys, Is it the soul of Compromise?
Lows and highs, Believing in lies, ...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR a grin that wasn't natural, and that combined in a strange way affection and arrogance, the arroganc...
FRANK O'CONNOR When you make an embarrassing mistake, learn to let the memories be enough to let you laugh about it...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR When you get clear on your own boundaries, you will find it easy to decide what you're willing to ac...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Choose your path or others may choose it for you.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Sometimes life is unpredictable, as are people.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Often it takes more guts than skill to open doors. Once the doors get opened, then it's up to you.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Those things that are not within your control can often be the very things that set you free.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Sometimes you have to "play the part" to become the part.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Indiscretions can lead to great lessons.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Stand strong in your value. That starts by knowing your value.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Anything is possible with laughter. If you can laugh out loud, especially at a life of mistakes, you...
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR You are not for everybody, but you are for somebody.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR They had no previous connection whatever with Connemara; but they saw connections where others who s...
JOSEPH O'CONNOR Even a true artist does not always produce art.
CARROLL O'CONNOR Sheer flattery got me into the theater. Flattery always works with me, particularly the flattery of ...
CARROLL O'CONNOR Nations have come under the control of haters and fools.
CARROLL O'CONNOR I have heard show business characterized as a refuge for childlike persons in flight from all things...
CARROLL O'CONNOR Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire.
CARROLL O'CONNOR The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable.
CARROLL O'CONNOR Millions of people thought Archie was a happy hero.
CARROLL O'CONNOR It seems that entertainment is what most excites us and what we value above everything else.
CARROLL O'CONNOR Some people thought we were presenting Archie as a false character. President Nixon thought we were ...
CARROLL O'CONNOR I hate pride, but if I were going to be proud of anything it would have to be something I'd done...
CARROLL O'CONNOR Talent can be developed, gift is God-given. But artists have both.
CARROLL O'CONNOR My professional life in Hollywood has been filled with joy and laughter.
CARROLL O'CONNOR The wages of pedantry is pain.
CARROLL O'CONNOR I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie, and I wasn't personally sad about finishin...
CARROLL O'CONNOR One irreducible residual of 38 years in the business is the number of lasting, loving friendships I ...
CARROLL O'CONNOR Not all celebrities are dunces.
CARROLL O'CONNOR I do talk less now because the sound of my voice saying over and over the things I said years ago em...
CARROLL O'CONNOR Half the pictures directed by men of reputation fail.
CARROLL O'CONNOR Both my brothers became physicians and I, of course, wandered into a business where the undiscipline...
CARROLL O'CONNOR All in the Family was intellectual; it was art.
CARROLL O'CONNOR Vulgar and obscene, the papers run rumors daily about people in show business, tales of wicked ways ...
CARROLL O'CONNOR It was a lack of system that made the '30s Depression as inevitable as all others previously suf...
CARROLL O'CONNOR In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering r...
CARROLL O'CONNOR I'm too diplomatic. I tend to edit my mind before I speak - it can be incredibly draining.
ERIN O'CONNOR I have two curiosity cabinets at home filled with finds from jumble sales, markets and my travels. M...
ERIN O'CONNOR I am rubbish at the gym. I prefer to exercise by moving around - it doesn't matter whether I am ...
ERIN O'CONNOR It's not about hiding your imperfections on a shoot; it's about embracing them and being una...
ERIN O'CONNOR I am selective. If I do splash out, it's an investment, and I wear things for years.
ERIN O'CONNOR I want to show that we all have the right to be ourselves, and I certainly don't want to freeze ...
ERIN O'CONNOR When I was 13 or 14, my parents had a bit of a windfall so bought a lovely new kitchen, but I burnt ...
ERIN O'CONNOR I'm utterly androgynous, and I truly love it. It's been part of my identity for so long. I&#...
ERIN O'CONNOR I've enjoyed many camping holidays with my sister and her children, but we're pretty posh ca...
ERIN O'CONNOR Caution is the key to safe cycling. I'm aware that cars are bigger than me, but I feel quite saf...
ERIN O'CONNOR I'm like a tourist when I'm in London.
ERIN O'CONNOR In my work, I'm called to a job at the drop of a hat, so I like a sense of order to my holidays,...
ERIN O'CONNOR Cycling is a great way to learn about your city. I love being outdoors, especially in good weather, ...
ERIN O'CONNOR A girl must have an indefinable magic, real character, a strong sense of self. Her role is to respon...
ERIN O'CONNOR I lead a very busy life and don't have a lot of time, so my skincare needs to be easy and portab...
ERIN O'CONNOR It makes me cross when I hear people say, 'It's so last season.' I always say, 'It&#...
ERIN O'CONNOR I've been on both sides: the victim and the villain. I was the victimised model, and everything ...
ERIN O'CONNOR Winter is my favourite season.
ERIN O'CONNOR My style has been nurtured over time. It's more about knowing what doesn't suit you. I love ...
ERIN O'CONNOR My perfect bag would be practical but also have the stylish element to it; it would be bold and colo...
ERIN O'CONNOR Life is full of surprises but you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Start there.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Life's unpredictable path and length, should be enough to make you want to take a chance.
JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns ...
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficul...
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR What if one thing resonates with everybody, but it's not the same for anybody?
MARK ALLEN O'CONNOR Breaking, in modern psychology, 'learned helplessness.' This is where you crush an animal's desire t...
REBECCA K. O'CONNOR