To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.

Workshop director Paul Engle was the first to read and comment on the initial drafts of what would become Wise Blood. O'Connor wrote: "Grace changes us and change is painful. She entered Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University) in an accelerated three-year program and graduated in June 1945 with a Social Sciences degree.

S. Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25 1925 – August 3 1964) was an American writer and essayist. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters.