Joyce Carol Oates's Quotes

Criticism is, for me, like essay writing, a wonderful way of relaxation; it doesn't require a heightened and mediated voice, like prose fiction, but rather a calm, rational, even conversational voice.

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.

I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.

If a book I've committed myself to review turns out to be 'disappointing' I make an effort to present it objectively to the reader, including a good number of excerpts from the text, so that the reader might form his or her own opinion independent of my own.

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 is not her body that he wants but it is only through her body that he can take possession of another human being, so he must labor upon her body, he must enter her body, to make his claim.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In love there are two things - bodies and words.

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.

Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light.

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

Boxing has become America's tragic theater.

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.

Boxing is about being hit rather more than it is about hitting, just as it is about feeling pain, if not devastating psychological paralysis, more than it is about winning.

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.

Anyone who teaches knows that you don't really experience a text until you've taught it, in loving detail, with an intelligent and responsive class.

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.

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.

When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.

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.

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

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

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.

A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise.

A writer can't subtract or excise any of his/her past because doing so would erase the work produced during that time.

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

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

I consider tragedy the highest form of art.

I could never take the idea of religion very seriously.

I have read on a Kindle. But the Kindle we had only worked for about eight months then it stopped working. You don't have to get books repaired.

I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.