816 Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates

It isn't the subjects we write about but the seriousness and subtlety of our expression that determines the worth of or effort.

The folly of war is that it can have no natural end except in the extinction an entire people.

Momma used to say, you got to know when to move. More important than knowing when to stay put.

During these mad dashes to the wall phone in the kitchen she hadn't time to fall but with fantastical grace and dexterity wrenched herself upright in midfall and continued running (dogs whimpering, yapping hysterically in her wake, cats scattering wide-eyed and plume-tailed) before the telephone ceased it's querulous ringing--though frequently she was greeted with nothing more than a derisive dial tone, in any case.

Can compromise be an art? Yes--but a minor art.

Critics sometimes appear to be addressing themselves to works other than those I remember writing.

Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms.

A wet autumn morning, a garbage truck clattering down the street. The first snowfall of the season, blossom sized flakes falling languidly and melting on the ground, a premature snow fall delicate as lace, rapidly melting.

On the way home Mary Lou said, "Some things are so sad you can't say them." But I pretended not to hear.