The Most Powerful Words in English
Wonderful quotes from Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life
“I take it as an article of faith that the novels I’ve loved will live inside me forever.”
“My mother hungered for art, for illumination, for some path to lead her to a shining way to call her own. She lit signal fires in the hills for her son to feel and follow. I tremble with gratitude as I honor her name.”
“If there is more important work than teaching, I hope to learn about it before I die.”
“I’ve never met a word I was afraid of, just ones that left me indifferent or that I knew I wouldn’t ever put to use. When reading a book, I’ll encounter words that please me, goad me into action, make me want to sing a song. I dislike pretentious words, those highfalutin ones with a trust fund and an Ivy League education. Often they were stillborn in the minds of academics, critics, scientists.”
“I can forgive almost any crime if a great story is left in its wake.”
“Books are living things and their task lies in their vows of silence. You touch them as they quiver with a divine pleasure. You read them and they fall asleep to happy dreams for the next ten years. If you do them the favor of understanding them, of taking in their portions of grief and wisdom, then they settle down in contented residence in your heart.”
“Home is a foreign word in my vocabulary and always will be.”
“Critics who do not like [Thomas] Wolfe often despise him, and his very name can induce nausea among the best of them. That is all right. They are just critics, and he is Thomas Wolfe. In my wanderings about this country, I have never left a flower on the grave of a single critic, but I cannot count the number of roses I have left at Wolfe’s grave in Asheville.”
“Stories are the vessels I use to interpret the world to myself. I am often called a ‘storyteller’ by flippant and unadmiring critics. I revel in the title.”
“The most powerful words in English are ‘tell me a story.’”
“My mother’s voice and my father’s fists are the two bookends of my childhood, and they form the basis of my art.”
“Safety is a crime writers should never commit unless they are after tenure or praise.”
“Reading and prayer are both acts of worship to me.”
I need to meet this author….such great thoughts! Thank you for putting those words up today.
Love Pat Conroy because I love teachers. I find us to be a nobel group
. I have been meaning to read his new book, but my job and two precious little ones have occupied my time pretty completely these last few months. Thank you for the highlights. Maybe I’ll carve out some time over Christmas break to check it out.
Love Conroy and have devoured every word he has written — even the cookbook! Can’t wait to read this one. Did you ever read “My Losing Season,” Mike?
Matt – It’s in the queue. So . . . how’s the cookbook?
“Reading and prayer are both acts of worship to me.”
I’ve felt this way since I was very young. Reading is a holy act for me. It’s refuge and reverence.
Better than you’d think, Mike! Great collections of stories followed up with recipes at the end of each chapter. He has a hilarious chapter on cookbooks he’s collected from churches, small town junior leagues, and that sort of thing. And I can also now make a mean Vidalia onion dip.
You’ll love “My Losing Season.” Great story about his senior year at the Citadel when his basketball team when something like 13-21.