Quotes from Pat Conroy

She was one of those Southerners who were aware from an early age that the South could never be more for them than a fragrant prison, administered by a collective of loving but treacherous relatives.

The words "I love you" could contain all the bloodthirsty despair of the abattoir, all the hopelessness of the most isolated, frozen gulag, all the lurid sadness of death row.

The porpoise has always been a sign of renewal and of the charged magical life.

I selected all my books for the possibility of some flare of candles along the road toward illumination or enchantment

I had the need to be the good master, but definitely the master, no matter what the cost.

It both surprised and angered me that {they} had reached a consensus of agreement against me. The way I looked at the world, enemies criticized and friends affirmed.

Christ must do a lot of puking when he reflects upon the good works done in his name.

The reading of great books has been a life-altering activity to me and, for better or worse, brought me singing and language-obsessed to that country where I make my living. Except for teaching, I've had no other ambition in life than to write books that mattered.

You're going to act like a happy man. I know, I know. It's the hardest role in the world.

He lived out his whole life as an anthem to the pleasures of a bad mood.

But let me begin with a statement of my own passionate and indignant belief--I do not care one goddamned thing about how James Dickey conducted his personal life. I care everything about what this man wrote on blank sheets of paper when he sat alone probing the extremities of imagination.

If Henry Wingo had not been a violent man, I think he would have made a splendid father.

An author must gorge himself on ten thousand images to select the magical one that can define a piece of the world in a way one has never considered before.

Conroy writes that, while part of him was following the basketball game from the bench, the other part, an embassy of a completely sovereign nation, would fling its doors open to the most authentic part of me.

Always believe in things and people that bring you pleasure. What good does it do to throw those things out the window?

One must always forgive another's passion.

I dislike poor teachers. They are criminals to me. I've seen so much cruelty toward children. I've seen so many children not given the opportunity to live up to their potential as human beings.

I went up to the terrace again and looked out on the tawny, many-alleyed city. At night it looked carved from brown sugar.

When I was in a kitchen I could no longer feel the pressure of the world on my shoulders; for me cooking has always been a high form of play, and teaching someone how to make a meal memorable was a combination of thrill and gift that I never tired of giving.

Well, at least she doesn't have to be a housewife the rest of her life," she said. "What in the hell do you have against housewives?" I said. "I was raised by one," Savannah said. "And it almost ruined my life." "I got knocked around by a shrimper when I was a kid," said Luke, "but I never blamed the shrimp.

I lived for those long casual walks down the beach and the sight of her small footprints in the glistening wet sand...

There is no city on Earth quite like Charleston. From the time I first came there in 1961, it's held me in its enchanter's power, the wordless articulation of its singularity, its withheld and magical beauty. Wandering through its streets can be dreamlike and otherworldly, its alleyways and shortcuts both fragrant and mysterious, yet as haunted as time turned in on itself.

Home is a damaged word, bruisable as fruit, in the cruel glossaries of the language I choose to describe the long, fearful march of my childhood. Home was a word that caught in my throat, stung like a paper cut, drew blood in its passover of my life, and hurt me in all the soft places. My longing for home was as powerful as fire in my bloodstream.

She saw the world through a dazzling prism of authentic imagination.