Quote

We wait for the tortoises to come. We wait for that lady who walks them. That’s how art works. It’s never a jackrabbit, or a racehorse. It’s the tortoises that hold all the secrets. We’ve got to be patient enough to wait for them.

Pat Conroy

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Pat Conroy
Age: 70 †
Born: 1945
Born: October 26
Died: 2016
Died: March 4
Author
Basketball Player
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Patrick Conroy
Donald Patrick Conroy
Enough
Wait
Never
Works
Hold
Racehorse
Walks
Racehorses
Secret
Tortoises
Waiting
Secrets
Art
Lady
Come
Patient

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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.
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One of the greatest gifts you can get as a writer is to be born into an unhappy family.
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Good coaching is good teaching and nothing else.
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I realized early that unless you're willing to kill the innocent, you can't win.
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There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory.
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We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game.
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Man wonders but God decides When to kill the Prince of Tides.
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I've never cackled with laughter at a single line I've ever written. None of it has given me pleasure.
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The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life. I wanted to follow Mr. Monte around for the rest of my life, learning everything he wished to share of impart, but I didn't know how to ask.
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The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.
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Her laughter was a shiny thing, like pewter flung high in the air.
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I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.
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You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.
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Saints make wonderful grandfathers and lousy husbands.
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In family matters you can get over anything. That's one thing you'll learn as an adult. There's a lot you have to learn which is a lot worse than that. You'd never think of forgiving a friend for some of the things your parents did to you. But with friends it's different. Friends aren't the roll of the dice.
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It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what `tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.
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I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one.
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A story untold could be the one that kills you.
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