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

— Pat Conroy

A man's only got so many yeses inside him before he uses them all up.

— Pat Conroy

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

— Pat Conroy

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

— Pat Conroy

An author must gorge himself on ten thousand images to select the magical one that can define a piece of the world in a way one has never considered before.

— Pat Conroy

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.

— Pat Conroy

As his children, we were treated as some species of migrant workers who happened to be passing through. My father was the only person I ever knew who looked upon childhood as a dishonorable vocation one grew out of as quickly as possible.

— Pat Conroy

As time passed from solstice to mild solstice in those occluded zones of my early childhood, I played beneath the distracted majesty of my mother's blue-eyed gaze. With her eyes on me, I felt as if I were being studied by flowers.

— Pat Conroy

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.

— Pat Conroy

Basketball allowed me to revere my father without him knowing what I was up to. I took up basketball as a form of homage and mimicry.

— Pat Conroy