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Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

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 Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

My own way of writing is very meditated and, despite my reputation, rather slow-moving. So I do spend a good deal of time contemplating endings. The final ending is usually arrived at simply by intuition Picture Quote #1

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.’ Picture Quote #1

People have libraries at home, they have bookshelves, they have CDs. And they sort of try, people try to bring great artists into their lives, into their physical houses and sort of live with portions of them. But they’re not really deeply engaging with them Picture Quote #1

The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn’t read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial Picture Quote #1

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The historical Woodrow Wilson suffered from numerous complaints which we might today label as psychosomatic. Yet, Wilson did have a stroke as a relatively young man of 39 and seemed always to be ill. He was ‘high-strung’ - intensely neurotic - yet a charismatic personality nonetheless Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

When I wrote ‘We Were The Mulvaneys,’ I was just old enough to look back upon my own family life and the lies of certain individuals close to me, with the detachment of time. I wanted to tell the truth about secrets: How much pain they give, yet how much relief, even happiness we may feel when at last the motive for secrecy has passed Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

Writers and artists never pay attention to advice given by their elders, quite rightly. The only worthwhile advice is the most general: ‘Keep trying, don’t give up, don’t be discouraged, don’t pay attention to detractors.’ Everyone knows this Picture Quote #1

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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 Picture Quote #1

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? Picture Quote #1

The strangeness of Time. Not in its passing, which can seem infinite, like a tunnel whose end you can’t see, whose beginning you’ve forgotten, but in the sudden realization that something finite, has passed, and is irretrievable Picture Quote #1

The heavenly light you admire is fossil-light, it’s the unfathomably distant past you gaze into, stars long extinct Picture Quote #1

He was ugly, himself. Weird-ugly. But ugliness in a man doesn’t matter, much. Ugliness in a woman is her life Picture Quote #1

Like a flame is real enough, isn’t it, while it’s burning?-even if there’s a time it goes out? Picture Quote #1

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I’m drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life Picture Quote #1

There was a Greek philosopher who taught that, of all things, not to have been born is the sweetest state. But I believe sleep is the sweetest state. You’re dead, yet alive. There’s no sensation so exquisite Picture Quote #1

Who is to blame for this most recent of sports disgraces in America? The culture that flings young athletes like Tyson up out of obscurity, makes millionaires of them and watches them self-destruct? Picture Quote #1

What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen Picture Quote #1

Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard Picture Quote #1

I can’t imagine a mental life, a spiritual existence, not inextricably bound up with language of a formal, mediated nature. Telling stories, choosing an appropriate language with which to tell the story: This seems to me quintessentially human, one of the great adventures of our species Picture Quote #1

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Budapest in late May is a city of lilacs. The sweet, languid, rather sleepy smell of lilacs wafts everywhere. And it is a city of lovers, many of them quite middle-aged. Walking with their arms around each other, embracing and kissing on park benches. A sensuousness very much bound up (it seems to me) with the heady ubiquitous smell of lilacs Picture Quote #1

Self-criticism, like self-administered brain surgery, is perhaps not a good idea. Can the ‘self’ see the ‘self’ with any objectivity? Picture Quote #1

What is memory but the repository of things doomed to be forgotten, so you must have History. You must have labor to invent History. Being faithful to all that happens to you of significance, recording days, dates, events, names, sights not relying merely upon memory which fades like a Polaroid print where you see the memory fading before your eyes like time itself retreating Picture Quote #1

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty? Picture Quote #1

I tend to think in dramatic terms. In life, there may be an actual drama, but it would be the fictionalized, imagined drama that engaged me Picture Quote #1

How lawyers make work for one another! You’re all priests, worshipping the same God. No wonder you adore one another Picture Quote #1

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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 Quotes) 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 Quotes) My own way of writing is very meditated and, despite my reputation, rather slow-moving. So I do spend a good deal of time contemplating endings. The final ending is usually arrived at simply by intuition (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) 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 Quotes) People have libraries at home, they have bookshelves, they have CDs. And they sort of try, people try to bring great artists into their lives, into their physical houses and sort of live with portions of them. But they’re not really deeply engaging with them (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn’t read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) The historical Woodrow Wilson suffered from numerous complaints which we might today label as psychosomatic. Yet, Wilson did have a stroke as a relatively young man of 39 and seemed always to be ill. He was ‘high-strung’ - intensely neurotic - yet a charismatic personality nonetheless (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) 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 Quotes) 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 Quotes) When I wrote ‘We Were The Mulvaneys,’ I was just old enough to look back upon my own family life and the lies of certain individuals close to me, with the detachment of time. I wanted to tell the truth about secrets: How much pain they give, yet how much relief, even happiness we may feel when at last the motive for secrecy has passed (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) 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 Quotes) Writers and artists never pay attention to advice given by their elders, quite rightly. The only worthwhile advice is the most general: ‘Keep trying, don’t give up, don’t be discouraged, don’t pay attention to detractors.’ Everyone knows this (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) 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 Quotes) 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 Quotes) The strangeness of Time. Not in its passing, which can seem infinite, like a tunnel whose end you can’t see, whose beginning you’ve forgotten, but in the sudden realization that something finite, has passed, and is irretrievable (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) The heavenly light you admire is fossil-light, it’s the unfathomably distant past you gaze into, stars long extinct (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) He was ugly, himself. Weird-ugly. But ugliness in a man doesn’t matter, much. Ugliness in a woman is her life (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) Like a flame is real enough, isn’t it, while it’s burning?-even if there’s a time it goes out? (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) I’m drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) There was a Greek philosopher who taught that, of all things, not to have been born is the sweetest state. But I believe sleep is the sweetest state. You’re dead, yet alive. There’s no sensation so exquisite (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) Who is to blame for this most recent of sports disgraces in America? The culture that flings young athletes like Tyson up out of obscurity, makes millionaires of them and watches them self-destruct? (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) I can’t imagine a mental life, a spiritual existence, not inextricably bound up with language of a formal, mediated nature. Telling stories, choosing an appropriate language with which to tell the story: This seems to me quintessentially human, one of the great adventures of our species (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) Budapest in late May is a city of lilacs. The sweet, languid, rather sleepy smell of lilacs wafts everywhere. And it is a city of lovers, many of them quite middle-aged. Walking with their arms around each other, embracing and kissing on park benches. A sensuousness very much bound up (it seems to me) with the heady ubiquitous smell of lilacs (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) Self-criticism, like self-administered brain surgery, is perhaps not a good idea. Can the ‘self’ see the ‘self’ with any objectivity? (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) What is memory but the repository of things doomed to be forgotten, so you must have History. You must have labor to invent History. Being faithful to all that happens to you of significance, recording days, dates, events, names, sights not relying merely upon memory which fades like a Polaroid print where you see the memory fading before your eyes like time itself retreating (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty? (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) I tend to think in dramatic terms. In life, there may be an actual drama, but it would be the fictionalized, imagined drama that engaged me. (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes) How lawyers make work for one another! You’re all priests, worshipping the same God. No wonder you adore one another. (Joyce Carol Oates Quotes)

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