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Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

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Famous Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

“Vividly imagined, beautifully written, at times almost unbearably suspenseful-the stories in Kristiana Kahakauwila's debut collection, This Is Paradise, are boldly inventive in their exploration of the tenuous nature of human relations. These are poignant stories of 'paradise'-Hawai'i-with all that 'paradise' entails of the transience of sensuous beauty.”

HumansStoriesWrittenRelationParadiseCollectionsExplorationHuman RelationsPoignantDebutSensuousTransience
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
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“Art originates in play - in improvisation, experiment, and fantasy; it remains forever, in its deepest instincts, playful and spontaneous, an exercise of the imagination analogous to the exercising of the physical body to no purpose other than ecstatic release.”

ArtPlayBodyPurposeImaginationFantasyForeverExerciseRemainsInstinctExperimentsReleaseSpontaneousImprovisationEcstaticPhysical Body
Book:The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art
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“I believe that art is the highest expression of the human spirit. I believe that we yearn to transcend the merely finite and ephemeral; to participate in something mysterious and communal called 'culture' - and that this yearning is as strong in our species as the yearning to reproduce the species.”

BelieveHumansArtSpiritCultureStrongI BelieveExpressionHighestArt IsSpeciesMysteriousYearningFiniteHuman SpiritEphemeral
Book:The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art
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“Budapest in late May is a city of lilacs. The sweet, languid, rather sleepy smell of lilacs wafts everywhere. And it is a city of lovers, many of them quite middle-aged. Walking with their arms around each other, embracing and kissing on park benches. A sensuousness very much bound up (it seems to me) with the heady ubiquitous smell of lilacs.”

MaySeemsCitiesMiddleSweetArmsLoversWalkingKissingLateEuropeBoundsSmellParksBenchesMiddle AgedSleepyLilacBudapestPark Benches
Book:(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities
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“I believe that the creative impulse is natural in all human beings, and that it is particularly powerful in children unless it is suppressed. Consequently, one is behaving normally and instinctively and healthily when one is creating - literature, art, music, or whatever. An excellent cook is also creative! I am disturbed that a natural human inclination [creative work] should, by some Freudian turn of phrase, be considered compulsive - perhaps even pathological. To me this is a complete misreading of the human enterprise. One should also enjoy one's work, and look forward to it daily.”

ShouldBelieveHumansLooksChildrenArtTurnsLiteratureI BelieveEnjoyNaturalHuman BeingsPowerfulCreativityCreativeCreatingCooksImpulseExcellentPhrasesEnterpriseInclinationDisturbedCreative WorkArt MusicMisreading
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
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“Boxing is an American sport - a 'so-called sport' to many - in which images of incalculable beauty and violence, desperation and ingenuity, are routinely entwined; the sport that evokes the most extreme reactions - loathing, revulsion, righteous indigation; a fierce and often inexplicable loyalty.”

SportsViolenceExtremesLoyaltyReactionsBoxingRighteousFierceDesperationIngenuityEvokeLoathingInexplicableEntwinedRevulsion
Book:(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities
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