"The writer has no rights at all except those he forges for himself inside his own work. We have become so flooded with sorry fiction based on unearned liberties, or on the notion that fiction must represent the typical, that in the public mind the deeper kinds of realism are less and less understandable."

Writing, Creativity, Truth, Independence

0

Create Your Own Wallpaper

Standard

Customized

"The writer has no rights at all except those he forges for himself inside his own work. We have become so flooded with sorry fiction based on unearned liberties, or on the notion that fiction must represent the typical, that in the public mind the deeper kinds of realism are less and less understandable."

Explore more quotes by Flannery O'Connor

"At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily."

Age, Despair

"Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not."

Faith,

"All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal."

People, Action, Character, Grace

"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."

Fiction, Poor, Writer

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."

Change, Truth, Ability

"I don't recall that when I was in high school or college, any novel was ever presented to me to study as a novel. In fact, I was well on the way to getting a Master's degree in English before I really knew what fiction was, and I doubt if I would ever have learned then, had I not been trying to write it. I believe that it's perfectly possible to run a course of academic degrees in English and to emerge a seemingly respectable Ph.D. and still not know how to read fiction."

Learning, Education, Knowledge, Discovery

"If you do the same thing every day at the same time for the same length of time you'll save yourself from many a sink. Routine is a condition of survival."

Routine, Habit, Consistency, Life

"When people have told me that because I am a Catholic, I cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic I cannot afford to be less than an artist."

Creativity, Faith, Art, Identity, Passion

"When something is finished, it cannot be possessed. Nothing can be possessed but the struggle."

Philosophy, Possession, Struggle, Truth, Life

"When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."

Communication, Perception, Audience, Expression

Exlpore more Writing quotes

"It just happens to be the way that I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them."

Haruki Murakami, Japanese Writer

Writing, Understanding, Expression

"Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them."

Anne Lamott, American Author

Writing, Process, First, Creativity

"Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream."

Mark Twain, American Author

Writing, Lady, Old

"Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should have talked before I dared to write it. I never launch any little essay without the hope-and the fear, because the encounter may also be embarrassing-that I shall draw a letter that begins, 'Dear Mr. Hitchens, it seems that you are unaware that It is in this sense that authorship is collaborative with 'the reader.' And there's no help for it: you only find out what you ought to have known by pretending to know at least some of it already.It doesn't matter how obscure or arcane or esoteric your place of publication may be: some sweet law ensures that the person who should be scrutinizing your work eventually does do so."

Christopher Hitchens, American Author

Writing, Authorship, Collaboration, Fear

"The name of a great writer is usually bigger than the title of his book. Both literally and figuratively."

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African Philosopher

Writing, Truth, Fame, Identity

"Writing is my pleasure and the play,where I find myself again and again."

Debasish Mridha, American Author

Writing, Pleasure, Play, Self

"It is said that you can't write without a reader. The opposite holds true as well; you can't read without a writer. But if as a single, creative person you are one in the same, then, well.....problem solved! Great writing is born from that which we personally long to read."

Richelle E. Goodrich, American Poet

Writing, Art, Truth, Power, Inspirational

"Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist."

Sara Sheridan, Scottish Author

Writing, Creativity, Inspirational, Comfort

"One author said "I write because I want to live a footprint in the sands of history. It's hard to live a footprint in the sands of history when giants are passing through the same sands unless you are one of the giants."

Bangambiki Habyarimana, Rwandan Author

Writing, History, Legacy, Giants

"By applying their observational abilities along with full appliance of their logic and creative powers, writers attempt to create mental maps to share with other people regarding what they learned, think, and believe. The writer's vision can sway readers emotional state and in doing influence what they believe and how they behave."

Kilroy J. Oldster, American Author

Writing, Creativity, Observation, Thought