Pat Conroy Quotes

1945–2016 United States

Donald Patrick "Pat" Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016) was an 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.

United States
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Random Pat Conroy quote

53 quotes

In families, there are no crimes beyond forgiveness.

The Prince of Tides (1986)

Fantasy is one of the soul's brighter porcelains.

Beach Music (1995)

Humanity is best described as inhumanity.

South of Broad (2009)

I often tell people The Boo is "the worst book ever written by an American," and I wish I'd written it better.

The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son (2013)

I take account of my life and find that I have lived a lot and learned very little.

South of Broad (2009)

I've never had anybody's approval, so I've learned to live without it.

The Great Santini (1976)

Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.

The best thing about a small town is that you grow up knowing everyone. It is also the worst thing.

Beach Music (1995)

I lived with the terrible knowledge that one day I would be an old man still waiting for my real life to start. Already, I pitied that old man.

The Prince of Tides (1986)

Ireland lived deeply inside of me, a fierce and intransigent resident in my bloodstream.

The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son (2013)

A library could show you everything if you knew where to look.

Teaching is a record of failures. But the glory of teaching is in the attempt.

The Water is Wide (1972)

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

My Losing Season (2002)

The water was pure and cold and came out of the Apennines tasting like snow melted in the hands of a pretty girl.

Beach Music (1995)

You must appreciate beauty for it to endure [...]

South of Broad (2009)

Here is all I ask of a book—give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

These are the quicksilver moments of my childhood I cannot remember entirely. Irresistible and emblematic, I can recall them only in fragments and shivers of the heart.

The Prince of Tides (1986)

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

My Losing Season (2002)

Man wonders but God decides
When to kill the Prince of Tides.

The Prince of Tides (1986)

The tide was a poem that only time could create, and I watched it stream and brim and makes its steady dash homeward, to the ocean.

South of Broad (2009)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Pat Conroy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.