The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

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.