45 Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates about writing
- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she, or he, is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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My first love was reading, which inspired me to write.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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I write so much because my cat sits on my lap. She purrs so I don't want to get up. She's so much more calming than my husband.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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I can't imagine a mental life, a spiritual existence, not inextricably bound up with language of a formal, mediated nature. Telling stories, choosing an appropriate language with which to tell the story: This seems to me quintessentially human, one of the great adventures of our species.
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I don't think that writer's block exists really. I think that when you're trying to do something prematurely, it just won't come. Certain subjects just need time, as I've learned over and over again. You've got to wait before you write about them.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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Without craft, art remains private. Without art, craft is merely hackwork.
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Criticism is, for me, like essay writing, a wonderful way of relaxation; it doesn't require a heightened and mediated voice, like prose fiction, but rather a calm, rational, even conversational voice.
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- Author Joyce Carol Oates
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Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.
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