When my brother called to inform me, on the morning of May 22, 2003, that our mother Caroline Oates had died suddenly of a stroke, it was a shock from which, in a way, I have yet to recover. Joyce Carol Oates More Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates More Quotes From Joyce Carol Oates Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. Joyce Carol Oates readingmeanbook I never change, I simply become more myself. Joyce Carol Oates never-change How lovely this world is, really: one simply has to look. Joyce Carol Oates lovelylooksworld Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read. Joyce Carol Oates apologywantwriting And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices. Joyce Carol Oates attractivevictimevil It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we really are. Joyce Carol Oates Novels begin, not on the page, but in meditation and day-dreaming - In thinking, not writing. Joyce Carol Oates dreamwritingthinking Keep a light, hopeful heart. But expect the worst. Joyce Carol Oates hopefullightheart The strangeness of Time. Not in its passing, which can seem infinite, like a tunnel whose end you can't see, whose beginning you've forgotten, but in the sudden realization that something finite, has passed, and is irretrievable. Joyce Carol Oates tunnelschangetime Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless! Joyce Carol Oates sympatheticeditorscritics See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be Joyce Carol Oates reasonmightpeople I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. Joyce Carol Oates soulwritingcards Ultimately, we measure ourselves against our own ideas of idealism and perfection, and we don't always come very close to them. Joyce Carol Oates idealismperfectionideas 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. Joyce Carol Oates storieslonglying 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 imaginationrunningthinking Look at the world and see what's there. It's very beautiful. It's a very exciting but in some ways treacherous world, and all this goes into the writing. Joyce Carol Oates writingbeautifullooks The mere passage of time makes us all exiles. Joyce Carol Oates passage-of-timepassagesphilosophical Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence. Joyce Carol Oates should-havestoriescharacter Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor. Joyce Carol Oates nosesdirtyfirsts Any kind of creative activity is likely to be stressful. The more anxiety, the more you feel that you are headed in the right direction. Easiness, relaxation, comfort - these are not conditions that usually accompany serious work. Joyce Carol Oates anxietycreativerelaxation
