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
Princeton is quite integrated. Women are professors at Princeton. Women are students at Princeton. That began in the 1970s. Joyce Carol Oates
Women Princeton Students Integrated Women Are Began Quite Professors
Often in gothic novels there's a large house, an estate, and it's symbolic of that culture. Usually it's sort of moldering or rotted or something, and sometimes it's a whole community. Joyce Carol Oates
Culture Sometimes Community Something House Sort Gothic Often Estate Large Whole Novels Symbolic
Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an experimental novel. Joyce Carol Oates
Best Thought Faulkner Unable Fable About Tender Writers Know Liked His Fitzgerald Scott Experimental Themselves Novel Night
My parents were very proud of me. After they passed, my career doesn't mean as much to me. Joyce Carol Oates
Me Parents Proud Passed Were Very After Mean Much Career
'We Were the Mulvaneys' is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valentine to a passing way of American life, and to my own particular child - and girlhood in upstate New York. Everyone in the novel is enormously close to me, including Marianne's cat, Muffin, who was in fact my own cat. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Me Heart Own Think Valentine Everyone Way My Own Fact Cat New Particular Perhaps Passing Were Close Child American York Closest New York In Fact Upstate Upstate New York American Life Muffin Who Novel Including
Most people who are writers go through periods when they can't write. Joyce Carol Oates
People Through Write Writers Most Periods Go Who
There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better. Joyce Carol Oates
Work Art Character Better Sometimes Characterized Seems Know Him Reader Passage May Being Anything Which Really Should Gratuitous Her
I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties. Joyce Carol Oates
Age Writing Young More Writer Never Knew Ideal Became Always Very Young Age Wanted Really Twenties Conscious
If you're living with a scientist, you see the world differently than you do with a humanist. It's in some ways very subtle, the differences in perceiving reality. Joyce Carol Oates
You Reality World Differences Living Ways See Some Perceiving Scientist Very Than Subtle Differently Humanist
'A Fair Maiden' existed in notes and sketches for perhaps a year. When I traveled, I would take along with me my folder of notes - 'ideas for stories.' Eventually, I began to write it and wrote it fairly swiftly - in perhaps two months of fairly intense writing and rewriting. Most of my time writing is really re-writing. Joyce Carol Oates
Time Me Writing Year Months Would My Time Maiden Write Take Along Fair Perhaps Ideas Most Wrote Fairly Existed Began Intense Rewriting Stories Sketches Notes Really Swiftly Traveled Eventually Two
I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours. Joyce Carol Oates
Me Word Looking Too Paper Would Something Could Write Feel Develops Longhand Hours Revision Scrap Screen Mean Much Page Old-Fashioned Many Using Whole Novel Keep Fast Staring Things
People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away. Joyce Carol Oates
People Publish Every Throw Know How How Much Surprised Might Much Page Pages Away
To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it. Joyce Carol Oates
Strange People Vision Project Saw Embark Visions Dream Must Write Never Had He Step Like Execute Stylized Quest Very Scream Where Romantic Them Next Next Step Novel
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Education Hope Writing Witness Opportunity Too Much Own Personal Life Too Others Way Tell Bearing Affected Personal Lack Often Stories Much Who
It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised. Joyce Carol Oates
Good Something Something Good Write Revised Poorly Hard
When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice. Joyce Carol Oates
You Writing Emotions Typing Something Voice Poetry Prose Takes Get Just Literary While Communicating
I think whenever we think of our hometowns, we tend to think of very specific people: with whom you rode on the school bus, who was your next door neighbor you were playing with, who your girlfriend was. It's always something very specific. Joyce Carol Oates
You People School Think Our Neighbor Girlfriend Something Tend Always Were Rode Very Whenever Door Bus Next Next Door Your Who Whom Specific Playing
I think it's very important for writers and artists generally to be witnesses to the world, and to be transparent. To let other people speak... to travel... to experience the world. And memorialize it. Joyce Carol Oates
Travel Experience People Speak World Important Think Other Writers Generally Witnesses Very Artists Transparent
I've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,' I provide a voice for someone who has died and can't speak for herself. Joyce Carol Oates
People Writing Speak Water Black Young Herself Able About Someone Voice Always Been Provide Died Children Young Children Interested Themselves Who Novel Including
If my favorite, most comfortable place is by our fireplace in cold weather, expedient places are on an airplane, in a waiting room or even waiting in line; frequently these days, while on the phone having been 'put on hold.' Joyce Carol Oates
Waiting Phone Weather Cold Cold Weather Our Airplane Favorite Having Fireplace Put Days Most Comfortable Frequently Line Been Expedient Hold Place While Places Room Even
Yes, 'Black Girl/White Girl' might be described as a 'coming-of-age' novel, at least for the survivor Genna. It is also intended as a comment on race relations in America more generally: we are 'roommates' with one another, but how well do we know one another? Joyce Carol Oates
Black Girl Relations More Generally Know Also Well Another How Least Yes Comment Survivor America Intended Race Might Race Relations Roommates Novel
'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves. Joyce Carol Oates
War Injustice Hatred Young Exploitation Immigrant Civil Classes About Civil War Only Factories Division Freeing Terrible Tragic Very Accursed Children Young Children Aftermath Race Social Poor Much Workers Social Injustice Novel Slaves Consequence Mills
When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life. Joyce Carol Oates
Life Saying Reality People Too Much Too Books Say People Say Much Violence
You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes. Joyce Carol Oates
You Negative Encouragement Energy Says Some Someone Something Write Goes So Much Energy Much Need
My students often say, 'My roommate read this story and really liked it,' and it's hard to convince them that there are things wrong with it. I say, 'Well, people who love you want you to be happy. But I'm your professor and I'm supposed to be teaching you something.' Joyce Carol Oates
Love You Be Happy Happy People Say Something Students Wrong Supposed Liked Well Read Often Love You Want Story Them Really Convince Your Hard Teaching Who Professor Things
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