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Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

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Famous Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

“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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“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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“Art is a means of memorialization of the past, a record of a rapidly vanishing world; a means of exorcising, at least temporarily, the ravages of homesickness. To speak of 'what is past, or passing or to come'-in the most meticulous language thereby to assure its permanence; to honor those we've loved and learned from and must outlive.”

WorldMeanArtPastSpeakLanguageRecordsHonorArt IsPassingPassingsPermanenceVanishingHomesicknessMeticulous
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
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“One of the qualities of writing that is not much stressed is its problem-solving aspect, having to do with the presentation of material: how to structure it, what sort of sentences (direct, elliptical, simple or compound, syntactically elaborate), what tone (in art, "tone" is everything), pacing. Paragraphing is a way of dramatization, as the look of a poem on a page is dramatic; where to break lines, where to end sentences.”

WayWritingLooksArtEndsProblemLinesSimpleQualityBreakMaterialsPagesAspectDirectStructureSentencesDramaticToneProblem SolvingPresentationStressedCompoundsPacing
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
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