816 Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates

Though I revise constantly as I write, I will usually revise much of the work again after I've reached the ending.

I used to think getting old was about vanity but actually it's about losing people you love.

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

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

The great menace to the life of an industry is industrial self-complacency.

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

I feel a terrible loss when I (eventually must) complete a work of fiction.

Yet the fact had no consciousness of itself except through me.

Writers and artists never pay attention to advice given by their elders, quite rightly. The only worthwhile advice is the most general: 'Keep trying, don't give up, don't be discouraged, don't pay attention to detractors.' Everyone knows this.