“She had no existence, in herself. From earliest childhood she had believed this. Rather she was a reflecting surface, reflecting others' perception… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
"Because there has been no one to stop me" has been one of the principles of my life. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Adriana loved even the rank animal smell of the man's body, her sweat-slicked breasts and belly flattened beneath him, and her arms… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
The innocence of such children doesn't answer our deepest questions about this vale of tears to which we are condemned, but it… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
There is an hour when you realize: here is what you have been given. More than this, you won't receive. And what… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“There could be no romance in the terrible possibility that Gretel Nissenbaum had fled on foot, alone, not to her family but… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing--for one of those bouts that go on and on, round… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
The greatest realities are physical and economic, all the subtleties of life come afterward. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing-for one of those bouts that go on and on, round… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I think what distresses me most in my life is that I have so many ideas I consider exciting ideas that I… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“it might be argued that our lives are a concatenation of minutiae interrupted at unpredictable times by significant events.” — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Fiction that adds up, that suggests a "logical consistency," or an explanation of some kind, is surely second-rate fiction; for the truth… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“Which is why we say I can't live without you meaning your life gives life to me, who am otherwise an empty… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I tend to think in dramatic terms. In life, there may be an actual drama, but it would be the fictionalized, imagined… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I always tell my students the same thing. And that's to live life, and to read very voraciously without any definite program.… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
This was before voice mail, recorded phone messages you can't escape. Life was easier then. You just didn't pick up the phone. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
The novel is perhaps the highest art form because it so closely resembles life: it is about human relationships. It's technique, page… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“So they'd fucked up her life, those guys she'd trusted, for fun. What the hell.” — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Primarily, 'Black Girl/White Girl' is the story of two very different, yet somehow 'fated' girls; for Genna, her 'friendship' with Minette is… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“A woman who has lost her husband is invalid, thus an invalid. In” — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
Paradox: how do we know what we have failed to see because we have no language to express it, thus we cannot know that… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
At all crucial moments in our lives we want to speak without knowing what to say. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
A writer’s life is in his work, and that is the place to find him. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
The challenge is to resist circumstances. Any idiot can be happy in a happy place, but moral courage is required to be happy in… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
The first sentence cant be written until the final sentence is written. — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“Did you know, Marianne: how by breaking the code that day, you broke it forever? For us all?” — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
