Quotes By Joyce Carol Oates

A typical biography relying upon individuals' notorious memories and the anecdotes they've invented contains a high degree of fiction, yet is considered 'nonfiction.'

Where we come from in America no longer signifies. It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.

Our house is made of glass... and our lives are made of glass; and there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves.

As a child. I grew up on a small farm, so I did a lot of drawings of animals, chickens and people. At the bottom of every page, I'd put a strange scribble. I was emulating adult handwriting, though I didn't actually know how to write.

Except that awards are competitive, which is a negative thing, they are wonderful for singling out deserving individuals and bringing their work to the attention of many potential readers who might otherwise have been totally unaware of them.

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?

Nothing is accidental in the universe - this is one of my Laws of Physics - except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity.

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.

I was brought up to be sympathetic toward others.

As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel, in one sense, is a problem-solving exercise.

When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer.

Productivity is a relative matter. And it's really insignificant: What is ultimately important is a writer's strongest books.

Probably nothing serious or worthwhile can be accomplished without one's willingness to be alone for sustained periods of time, which is not to say that one must live alone, obsessively.

We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language.

If my favorite, most comfortable place is by our fireplace in cold weather, expedient places are on an airplane, in a waiting room or even waiting in line; frequently these days, while on the phone having been 'put on hold.'

It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she, or he, is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence.

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.

Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.

Sometimes I read reviews, and without exception I will read critical essays that are sent to me. The critical essays are interesting on their own terms.

To be knocked out doesn't mean what it seems. A boxer does not have to get up.

Honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards are very encouraging. I know that it might sound strange that a writer who has published many books still needs encouragement, but this is true.

A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise.

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

The cleaning is something I use as a reward if I get some work done. I go into a very happy state of mind when I'm vacuuming.

Yes, I've listened to just a few audiobooks - but hope to listen to more. I've wanted to investigate how my own books sound in this format and find the experience of listening, and not reading, quite fascinating.

Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.

I can't say I was a very successful sorority girl.

The great menace to the life of an industry is industrial self-complacency.

You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes.