Pat Conroy, A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections On A Writing Life Quotes

I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language.

Because I’ve gotten older, I worry that there will be a steep decline in my talent, but I promise not to let the same thing happen to my passion for writing.

I loathe it when they [English teachers] are bullied by no-nothing parents or cowardly school boards.

A nation of unhappy teachers makes for a sadder and more endangered America.

A new novel awaits my arrival, prepares for my careful inspection. Yet a novel is always a long dream that lives in me for years before I know where to go to hunt it out.

The choices I didn’t make are almost as ruinous as the ones I did.

Generosity is the rarest of qualities in American writers.

A woman in Charlotte approached me and said that she’s tired of the dysfunction in my novels. I told her I was sorry, but that is how the world has presented itself to me throughout my life.

I have yet to meet an English teacher who assigned a book to damage a kid.

Among the worst things about growing old is the loss of those irreplaceable friends who added richness and depth to your life.

I have always been attracted to male writers who can demonstrate their love and affection for women with ease, yet not draw attention to themselves.

It’s the great surprise of my life that I ended up loving [my father] so much.

My father managed to change his entire life after I wrote a novel about his brutal regime as a family man. It took resoluteness and courage for my father to change, and I need to acknowledge that.

It eases my soul that I share a house with [Cassandra King] a novelist of such rare and distinctive gifts.

Moonrise is a fabulous novel and my damn wife wrote it and that’s me up there near Highlands shouting it out to the hills.

I don’t know when reading books became the most essential thing about me, but it happened over the years and I found myself the most willing servant of what I considered a rich habit.

I envy the tireless intimacy of women’s friendship, its lastingness, and its unbendable strength.