Celebrations: Happy Birthday Flannery O’Connor!

Born in Savannah, GA on March 25, 1925, Flannery O’Connor is still considered one of America’s greatest fiction writers of novels, short stories and essays. She often wrote in a southern gothic style and frequently wrote of morality and ethics all while living on a 455-acre dairy farm in Milledgeville, Ga. (andalusiafarm.org) with her mother, her books, and forty-four peacocks.

O’Connor was gifted and sharp-witted, outspoken yet shy. Her works depicted her deep spiritual nature and clever wit thru her complex and conflicted characters.

Some of her best known works include: Wise Blood, Everything that Rises Must Converge, The Violent Bear it Away, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Flannery quotes on life and writing:

“When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business.”

“Conviction without experience makes for harshness.”

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

“I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I’m afraid it will not be controversial.”

“I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.”

“I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else’s. But behind all of them there is only one truth and that is that there’s no truth.”

“Grace changes us and change is painful.”

Whitney Long is co-founder of The Southern C and a Southern Living Contributing Editor.