ayn rand

belief

body

Catholic

Christianity

dogma

faith

fame

fiction

fiction writer

first draft

free will

grace

grotesque

novel

novel writing

novelist

perception

sickness

Simone Weil

Southerner

story

suffering

Tennessee

truth

unadaptability

university

writing

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

short story writer

essayist

religion

Catholicism

cause of death

natural causes

innovator in the field of

essay

's basis is truth, both in matter and in mode.

The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.

 never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.

Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.

is as low as you can get regarding fiction. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.

The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.

is the engine that makes perception operate.

Belief, in my own case anyway, is the engine that makes perception operate.

is like a house in that it don't go anywhere while the spirit is like an automobile: always on the move.

The body, lady, is like a house: it don't go anywhere... but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile: always on the move

is one who believes what the Church teaches and the climate makes no difference.

If you're a Catholic you believe what the Church teaches and the climate makes no difference.

Christianity is a strangely cheery religion.

is the guardian of mystery. The doctrines are spiritually significant in ways that we cannot fathom.

Dogma is the guardian of mystery. The doctrines are spiritually significant in ways that we cannot fathom.

Dogma can in no way limit a limitless God.

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

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

is a comic distinction shared with roy rogers' horse and miss watermelon of 1955.

is about everything human. And since we are made out of dust, if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction.

Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.

's main concern is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.

... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.

 often sounds as if a chicken had written it.

Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part.

is an art form. When it is used for anything other than art, it is perverted.

The novel is an art form and when you use it for anything other than art, you pervert it. (Flannery O'Connor)

is a thing which most people don't even know what it is until they sit down to write one.

I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one. Flannery O'Connor

is not a thing that changes according to our ability to stomach it.

Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

is a place that may stifle writers, but not enough of them, as there is many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.

is such that many people contend that it stifles writers, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't stifle enough of them.

Everywhere I go I am asked if university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them.

Flannery O'ConnorThinkers

Flannery O'Connor