Today, we have another birthday girl - notable author Flannery O'Connor
Here's a little background on Ms. O'Connor from Wikipedia:
An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and -- it is regularly said -- grotesque characters. But she remarked, "anything that comes out of the South isgoing to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic." Her texts usually take place in the South and revolve around morally flawed characters, while the issue of race often appears in the background. One of her trademarks is bluntforeshadowing, giving a reader an idea of what will happen far before it happens. Most of her works feature disturbing elements, though she did not like to be characterized as cynical. "I am tired of reading reviews that call A Good Man brutal and sarcastic," she writes. "The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism... when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror."
Her two novels were Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960). She also published two books of short stories: A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (published posthumously in 1965).
And now, Flannery in her own words:
“I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.”
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
“It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes.”
“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.”
“When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville”
“There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
“It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.”
“Conviction without experience makes for harshness.”
“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”
Cheers! - Jason
“It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes.”
“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.”
“When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville”
“There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
“It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.”
“Conviction without experience makes for harshness.”
“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”
Cheers! - Jason
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