“The type of mind that can understand good fiction is not necessarily the educated mind, but it is at all times the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery. . . . Fiction operates through the senses, and I think one reason that people find it so difficult to write stories is that they forget how much time and patience is required to convince through the senses. No reader who doesn’t actually experience, who isn’t made to feel, the story is going to believe anything the fiction writer merely tells him. The first and most obvious characteristic of fiction is that it deals with reality through what can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, and touched.” – Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners

“The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.” – Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet.” – Willa Cather