As you grow older, you'll find that you enjoy talking to strangers far more than to your friends. — Joy Williams Enjoy Copy Share Image
It's become fashionable these days to say that the writer writes because he is not whole, he has a wound, he writes… — Joy Williams Care Copy Share Image
“Sam and Elizabeth met as people usually meet. Suddenly, there was a deceptive light in the darkness. A light that reminded the… — Joy Williams Darkness Copy Share Image
Many writers today are wanderers. There is not only an unhousedness in language - how to convey, to say nothing of converge… — Joy Williams Language Copy Share Image
The writer doesn’t write for the reader. He doesn’t write for himself, either. He writes to serve…something. Somethingness. The somethingness that is… — Joy Williams Books Copy Share Image
Someone once told me a story about long term relationships. To think of them as a continent to explore. I could spend… — Joy Williams Adventure Copy Share Image
One is always enthralled, I think, when a young writer you're just beginning to read and comprehend dies. — Joy Williams Dies Copy Share Image
“Why does the writer write? The writer writes to serve — hopelessly he writes in the hope that he might serve —… — Joy Williams Hope Copy Share Image
I think I had the same notion most people have, which is it’s simply a town that percolates around country music. Though… — Joy Williams All kinds Copy Share Image
You must stop worrying about why things happen and wonder what they mean when they do. — Joy Williams Fear Copy Share Image
“So many times in a single day we glimpse a view beyond the apparent. Write those moments down. They might not speak… — Joy Williams Poetry Copy Share Image
“She was never going to seek gainful employment again, that was for certain. She'd remain outside the public sector. She'd be an… — Joy Williams Art Copy Share Image
“He could almost taste the tang of that swampy air right here in his own desert parking lot and hear the calls… — Joy Williams Crows Copy Share Image
I believe in guilt. There's not enough guilt around these days for my taste. — Joy Williams Believe Copy Share Image
A writer loves the dark, loves it, but is always fumbling around in the light. — Joy Williams Dark Copy Share Image
“She had a dream about a tattoo. This was a pleasant dream. She was walking away and she had the most beautiful… — Joy Williams Dreams Copy Share Image
“I DON'T WANT to talk about me, of course, but it seems as though far too much attention has been lavished on… — Joy Williams Adventure Copy Share Image
“Alice heard a woman say, 'Before I start writing I feel affectionate, interested, and frustrated. In that order. Afterwards I feel relieved,… — Joy Williams Writing Copy Share Image
“Why does the writer write? The writer writes to serve--hopelessly he writes in the hope that he might serve--not himself and not… — Joy Williams Writing Copy Share Image
“At the point in his lecture where he was saying that the representative element in a work of art is always irrelevant,… — Joy Williams Art Copy Share Image
What a story is, is devious. It pretends transparency, forthrightness. It engages with ordinary people, ordinary matters, recognizable stuff. But this is… — Joy Williams Catastrophe Copy Share Image
You don't believe in Nature anymore. It's too isolated from you. You've abstracted it. It's so messy and damaged and sad. Your… — Joy Williams Animal Copy Share Image
