816 Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates

Evil isn't a cosmological riddle, only just selfish human behavior.

When poets - write about food it is usually celebratory. Food as the thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful preparation of meals, the serving of meals, meals communally shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane.

I love insult, it's always honest.

Only when men are connected to large, universal goals are they really happy-and one result of their happiness is a rush of creative activity.

In families there are frequently matters of which no one speaks, nor even alludes. There are no words for these matters. As the binding skeleton beneath the flesh is never acknowledged by us and, when at last it defines itself, is after all an obscenity.

I am concerned with only one thing, the moral and social conditions of my generation.

Childhood is the province of the imagination and when I immerse myself in it, I re-create it as it was, as it could have been, as I wanted - and didn't want - it to be.

It feels good, honey, but it isn't love.

If you explore beneath shyness or party chit-chat, you can sometimes turn a dull exchange into an intriguing one. I've found this to be particularly true in the case of professors or intellectuals, who are full of fascinating information, but need encouragement before they'll divulge it.