816 Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates

The act of sending a letter is an act of generosity, even if, in retrospect, it might seem reckless. Why regret one's generosity? Why regret one's impulsiveness, one's misjudgment of others? The inevitable discovery that someone is selling letters you'd written in trust is simply to discover an obvious human truth: there are those who don't cherish us as we'd cherished them, and had wished to be cherished by them.

Not even the most devastating truth can be told; it must be evoked.

My reputation for writing quickly and effortlessly notwithstanding, I am strongly in favor of intelligent, even fastidious revision, which is, or certainly should be, an art in itself.

It's very hard to be an experimental woman writer. If I had been writing under a pseudonym, just initials, I might have a different reputation - but, then I couldn't be myself either.

In a family, what isn't spoken is what you listen for. But the noise of a family is to drown it out.

I have beliefs, of course, like everyone-but I don't always believe in them.

You cultivate the subconscious by meditation, by sitting in silence and by not trying to control your thoughts. Then go someplace where you haven't been before, or go for a walk, a run, and look for signs of grace-an epiphany, something that comes to you.

My parents were very proud of me. After they passed, my career doesn't mean as much to me.

It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised.