Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy
Donald Patrick "Pat" Conroywas a New York Times bestselling American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs. Two of his novels, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into Oscar-nominated films. He is recognized as a leading figure of late-20th century Southern literature...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 October 1945
CityAtlanta, GA
CountryUnited States of America
lovers institutions
I would always be a better hater of things and institutions than a lover of them.
memories childhood verdict
There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory.
men honor presence-of-god
Honor is the presence of God in man.
book heart character
Here's what I want from a book, what I demand, what I pray for when I take up a novel and begin to read the first sentence: I want everything and nothing less, the full measure of a writer's heart. I want a novel so poetic that I do not have to turn to the standby anthologies of poetry to satisfy that itch for music, for perfection and economy of phrasing, for exactness of tone. Then, too, I want a book so filled with story and character that I read page after page without thinking of food or drink because a writer has possessed me, crazed with an unappeasable thirst to know what happens next.
kids writing festivals
I meet kids now who become novelists, poets, write for the theater and movies, who were simply inspired by what they saw during the Spoleto Festival.
country children warrior
The children of warriors in our country learn the grace and caution that come from a permanent sense of estrangement.
mean greatness laziness
The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life.
happiness beautiful flawless
Happiness is an accident of nature, a beautiful and flawless aberration.
eye expression tongue
The English language on her tongue became a smoke-screen, without her eyes changing expression in the least.
laughter fate law
No story is a straight line. The geometry of a human life is too imperfect and complex, too distorted by the laughter of time and the bewildering intricacies of fate to admit the straight line into its system of laws.
moving stories living-things
A story is a living thing, it moves and shifts...
writing light interesting
You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.
stories
A story untold could be the one that kills you.
music beautiful hurt
Music could ache and hurt, that beautiful music was a place a suffering man could hide.