For obviously the advantage for most writers is that no...
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For obviously the advantage for most writers is that no one sees them. The writer is invisible, which confers power. Joyce Carol Oates
Warum man schreibt, ist eine Frage die sich der Schriftsteller,...
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Warum man schreibt, ist eine Frage die sich der Schriftsteller, völlig versunken in seine Arbeit, nicht stellt. Theorien sind das Gebiet derer, die nicht handeln. Joyce Carol Oates
It isn't the subjects we write about but the seriousness...
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It isn't the subjects we write about but the seriousness and subtlety of our expression that determines the worth of or effort. Joyce Carol Oates
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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
See, people come into your life for a reason. They...
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See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be Joyce Carol Oates
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But he doesn't love her. I invented that. It is a plot if you imagine people in love--the lazy looping criss crosses of love, blows, stares, tears. No. It doesn't happen. No love. People meet, touch, stare into one another's faces, shake their heads clear, move on, forget. It doesn't happen. Joyce Carol Oates
The folly of war is that it can have no...
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The folly of war is that it can have no natural end except in the extinction an entire people. Joyce Carol Oates
I suggest to my students that they write under a...
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I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily. Joyce Carol Oates
Can compromise be an art? Yes--but a minor art.
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Can compromise be an art? Yes--but a minor art. Joyce Carol Oates
He was ugly, himself. Weird-ugly. But ugliness in a man...
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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
Legs was always proud even before FOXFIRE, that’s the primary...
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Legs was always proud even before FOXFIRE, that’s the primary fact about Legs Sadovsky: pride. Joyce Carol Oates
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... because the Legs wasn't fearful of heights or swimming in rough water or Death itself she wasn't afraid to risk making a fool of herself. Maybe you think that's something of no consequence but it isn't - for making a fool of yourself, offering yourself to others to laugh at, to jeer, that takes guts. Joyce Carol Oates
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Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. Joyce Carol Oates
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The distinction between "assistant" and intern" is a simple one: assistants are paid, interns are not. But of course interns are paid, in experience. Joyce Carol Oates
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Her visits to her former hometown were infrequent and often painful. Pilgrimages fueled by the tepid oxygen of family duty, unease, guilt. The more Esther loved her parents, the more helpless she felt, as they aged, to protect them from harm. A moral coward, she kept her distance. Joyce Carol Oates
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Adriana loved even the rank animal smell of the man's body, her sweat-slicked breasts and belly flattened beneath him, and her arms and legs clutching him as a drowning woman might clutch another person to save her life. Don't don't don't don't leave me. DON'T LEAVE ME. As in animal copulation the frenzy is to be locked together not out of sentiment or choice but physical compulsion. As if bolts of electric current ran through both their bodies and would only release them from each other when it ceased. Joyce Carol Oates
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Dominique (who, like other Catamount girls, had a cache of pills for every occasion) offered me a bennie- Benzedrine?- to elevate my spirits. Adamantly I told her, No thanks! I wanted to face what's called reality with my eyes open. I've made that a principle for my life. Sometimes I wonder if this has been a wise decision. Joyce Carol Oates
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The danger of motherhood. you relive your early self, through the eyes of your mother. Joyce Carol Oates
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The innocence of such children doesn't answer our deepest questions about this vale of tears to which we are condemned, but it helps to dispel them. That is the secret to family life. Joyce Carol Oates
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You never give such relationships a thought, To give a thought, to take a thought is a function of dissociation, distance. You can't exercise memory until you've removed yourself from memory's source. Joyce Carol Oates