Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
American Novelist
Born: Jun 16, 1938
Life Me People Time Writing You
Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach
For some reason, voters can be brainwashed, and they vote sometimes against their own best interests, let alone voting against the interests of people who need them, like people who are disenfranchised and people who are poor and so forth. Joyce Carol Oates
Alone Best Vote People Sometimes Voting Own Best Interests Some Like Voters Brainwashed Disenfranchised Against Them Poor Forth Interests Reason Who Need
I should say, one of the things about being a widow or a widower, you really, really need a sense of humor, because everything's going to fall apart. Joyce Carol Oates
You Sense Of Humor Humor Fall Sense Everything Say One Of The Things About Because Going Being Apart Really Should Things Widow Need
The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way. Joyce Carol Oates
Relationship Parents Tremendously Way Scarcely Rational Daughters Powerful Between Mothers Any Children
Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light. Joyce Carol Oates
Nature Light Once Someone Off Turned Desert Night
I don't read for amusement, I read for enlightenment. I do a lot of reviewing, so I have a steady assignment of reading. I'm also a judge for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which gives awards to literature and nonfiction. Joyce Carol Oates
Book Judge Reading Steady Gives Also Read Nonfiction Lot Reviewing Literature Which Awards Assignment Enlightenment Amusement
Mark Twain was very unhappy with himself for various reasons. He was very unhappy with America of this time. He thought it was terrible we had no anti-lynching laws, and he was also a feminist, and he was also very concerned with anti-Semitism. He was a good man, but he was hard on himself. Joyce Carol Oates
Time Good Man Unhappy Good Man Thought Anti-Semitism Mark Mark Twain Laws Various Various Reasons Had He Also Concerned Terrible Himself Feminist Very America Hard Twain Reasons
I'm drawn to failure. I feel like I'm contending with it constantly in my own life. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Failure Own Drawn Constantly My Own Feel Like Contending
We are all regionalists in our origins, however 'universal' our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root - almost literally. Joyce Carol Oates
Plants Soil Our Characters Must Would Would-Be Shallow Take Almost Like Without Souls Cherished However Childhood Literally Themes Us Root Landscapes Nourish Origins Universal Set
Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost. Joyce Carol Oates
Religion Sports Lost More Masculinity Boxing Celebration Being
My reputation for writing quickly and effortlessly notwithstanding, I am strongly in favor of intelligent, even fastidious revision, which is, or certainly should be, an art in itself. Joyce Carol Oates
Art Writing Reputation Favor Strongly Am Revision Itself Quickly Intelligent Effortlessly Which Should Certainly Notwithstanding Even Fastidious
Detroit, my 'great' subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am - for better or worse. Joyce Carol Oates
Great Me Better Made Worse Detroit Writer Am Subject Person Consequently
We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language. Joyce Carol Oates
Memory Language Without Blood Linked
I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another. Joyce Carol Oates
Art Conflict People Looking Think Dramatic Out Direction Write Another Always Am Go Event Lives Kernel
If I'm writing, I'll say something metaphorical or approximate, whereas scientists are very precise. Joyce Carol Oates
Writing Say Approximate Something Metaphorical Scientists Very Precise Whereas
Primarily, 'Black Girl/White Girl' is the story of two very different, yet somehow 'fated' girls; for Genna, her 'friendship' with Minette is the most haunting of her life, though it is one-sided and ends in tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Friendship Black Girl Though One-Sided Somehow Haunting Primarily Most Tragedy Very Ends Different Story Her Two Fated
My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes. Joyce Carol Oates
Virginia Virginia Woolf George Were Austen Role Role Models Models Childless Jane Woolf Jane Austen
One writes to memorialize, and to bring to life again that which has been lost. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Lost Has-Been Writes Been Which Again Bring
In 'We Were the Mulvaneys,' animals are almost as important as people. I wanted to show the tenderness in our relationships with cats, dogs, and horses. Especially cats. Joyce Carol Oates
People Cats Animals Important Relationships Our Horses Tenderness Almost Dogs Were Wanted Show
I compose most of my tweets with care, as if they were aphorisms - they are not usually dashed-off. Sometimes I'm surprised by the high, poetic quality of Twitter - it lends itself to a surreal sort of self-expression. Joyce Carol Oates
Quality Sometimes Care Twitter High Compose Poetic Most Self-Expression Sort Were Surprised Surreal Itself Lends Aphorism Tweets
Boxing has become America's tragic theater. Joyce Carol Oates
Sports Become Boxing Tragic America Theater
To be knocked out doesn't mean what it seems. A boxer does not have to get up. Joyce Carol Oates
Out Seems Knocked Boxer Does Up Get Mean
If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing, because you have that space. Joyce Carol Oates
Silence You Yourself Writing Matter Space Car Locate Writer Driving Because Housework Still Doing Walking Wall Behind
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck. Joyce Carol Oates
Luck Worst Cynicism Belief Chance
It is not her body that he wants but it is only through her body that he can take possession of another human being, so he must labor upon her body, he must enter her body, to make his claim. Joyce Carol Oates
Human Being Claim Possession Enter Must Only Through Take He Make Another His Labor Human Being Wants Body Her
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply. Joyce Carol Oates
Life People Personality World Politician Complex See Writer Simply Artist
Boxing is about being hit rather more than it is about hitting, just as it is about feeling pain, if not devastating psychological paralysis, more than it is about winning. Joyce Carol Oates
Feeling Pain Paralysis About Rather More Winning Devastating Boxing Hit Than Hitting Just Being Psychological
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