When writing goes painfully, when it’s hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real! )—then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when writing goes smoothly—why then one certainly should keep on working, since it would be stupid to stop. Consequently one is always writing or should be writing. Joyce Carol Oates
About This Quote

When writing goes painfully, when it's hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real!)–then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when writing goes smoothly–why then one certainly should keep on working, since it would be stupid to stop. Consequently one is always writing or should be writing.

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More Quotes By Joyce Carol Oates
  1. The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love.
  2. In love there are two things - bodies and words.
  3. A daydreamer is prepared for most things.
  4. 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.
  5. And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.
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