For some reason, voters can be brainwashed, and they vote sometimes against their own best interests, let alone voting against the interests of people who need them, like people who are disenfranchised and people who are poor and so forth. Joyce Carol Oates More Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates More Quotes From Joyce Carol Oates Better to be despised, then, than to be ignored; or damned with condescending praise. Joyce Carol Oates condescendingignoredpraise The only people who claim that money is not important are people who have enough money so that they are relieved of the ugly burden of thinking about it. Joyce Carol Oates moneypeoplethinking Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality. Joyce Carol Oates saviortraditionenemy No, the thing is, we all love storytelling, and as a writer you get to tell stories all the time. Joyce Carol Oates storytellingstories Perhaps the inevitable tragedy of our complex civilization is that we must be specialists in our fields - and our fields have become increasingly difficult, so that communication is nearly impossible. Joyce Carol Oates communicationtragedycivilization The challenge is to resist circumstances. Any idiot can be happy in a happy place, but moral courage is required to be happy in a hellhole. Joyce Carol Oates idiotmoralchallenges ...failure is a human condition, not victory over odds; for each Hellen Keller who triumphs, there are tens of millions who fail, mute and deaf and insensate as vegetables tossed upon a vast garbage pile to rot. Joyce Carol Oates victoryoddsvegetables Fame's carapace does not allow for easy breathing. Joyce Carol Oates breathingdoefame Near the point of impact, time acelerates to the speed of light. Joyce Carol Oates impactlighttime There is a terrible weight in all kinds of beauty Joyce Carol Oates kindweightbeauty Life is like boxing in many unsettling respects. But boxing is only like boxing. Joyce Carol Oates life-is-likeboxinglife-is You can't deny Eros. Eros wills trike, like lightning. Our human defenses are frail, ludicrous. Like plasterboard houses in a hurricane. Your triumph is in perfect submission. And the god of Eros will flow through you, as Lawrence says, in the 'perfect obliteration of blood consciousness. Joyce Carol Oates perfecthouseblood Art is the highest expression of the human spirit. Joyce Carol Oates expressionspiritart It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised. Joyce Carol Oates hardwriting People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away. Joyce Carol Oates pagesmightpeople My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes. Joyce Carol Oates virginiarole-modelsroles Productivity is a relative matter. And it's really insignificant: What is ultimately important is a writer's strongest books. Joyce Carol Oates importantmatterbook Evil isn't a cosmological riddle, only just selfish human behavior. Joyce Carol Oates selfishbehaviorevil The third man in the ring makes boxing possible. Joyce Carol Oates boxingringsmen In love there are two things - bodies and words. Joyce Carol Oates bodylovetwo
