“I feel akin to [William] Shakespeare in the sense that, as I see it, he lived to dramatize the unfailingly exciting, unfathomably strange interplay among human beings that constitutes "scenes" in his plays, and constitutes "story" in prose fiction.” FeelsHumansPlayStoriesHuman BeingsFictionStrangeSceneExcitingProse Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I feel a terrible loss when I (eventually must) complete a work of fiction.” FeelsLossFictionTerrible Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I've never given up. I've always kept going. I don't feel that I could afford to give up. That would be the beginning of the end.” GivingFeelsEndsWould BeGivenGiving UpGiven Up Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I turn down invitations to do things for money. I have almost no interest in making money. Actually, I've acquired a fair amount of money that I will never live to spend. So earning money, in a way, depresses me, because I feel it's just piling up.” WayFeelsTurnsInterestAmountFairsMaking MoneyDepressingEarningInvitationsEarning Money Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“In a sense, I may not consciously know what I'm doing. I feel that I'm telling a story. I'm a kind of medium by which something is transmitted.” KnowsFeelsKindMayStoriesMediums Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“A lot of widows feel that they have betrayed their spouse by continuing to live. It's deranged thinking. I know that, but that doesn't stop you feeling it.” ThinkingKnowsFeelsFeelingsContinuingSpouseBetrayedWidowsDeranged Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“Among many of my friends and acquaintances, I seem to be one of the very few individuals who felt or feels no ambivalence about my mother. All my feelings for my mother were positive, very strong and abiding.” FeelsFeelingsSeemsMotherIndividualStrongFeltMy FriendsVery StrongAcquaintanceAbidingAmbivalence Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“Any kind of creative activity is likely to be stressful. The more anxiety, the more you feel that you are headed in the right direction. Easiness, relaxation, comfort - these are not conditions that usually accompany serious work.” FeelsKindCreativeConditionsSeriousComfortActivityAnxietyRelaxationStressfulAccompanyRight DirectionEasinessSerious Work Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours.” FeelsWritingMeanWholeHoursNovelPaperPagesScreensStaringOld FashionedScrapRevisionScribblesProcessors Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I don't know what marriages are like in general, but there are many things which I don't talk about with my husband. We discuss practical problems, but I wouldn't sit down with him and talk about the distant past. It's somewhat in contrast to other Americans, who feel that they have to confess things, but I'm really not like that.” KnowsFeelsProblemPastHusbandPracticalsMy HusbandContrast Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I would suggest the widow do things the husband used to do, so he seems to be there with you. You will feel like just going to bed. It's so wonderful, going to bed.” FeelsSeemsUsedWonderfulBedHusbandWidows Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“When I wrote 'We Were The Mulvaneys,' I was just old enough to look back upon my own family life and the lies of certain individuals close to me, with the detachment of time. I wanted to tell the truth about secrets: How much pain they give, yet how much relief, even happiness we may feel when at last the motive for secrecy has passed.” GivingFeelsLooksMayEnoughWantedPainLastsLyingCertainIndividualMy OwnSecretMotiveReliefTelling The TruthFamily LifeSecrecyDetachment Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“For the first time driving that day I could feel the motion of the Earth. The Earth rushing through the emptiness of space. Spinning on its axis but they say you don't feel it, you can't experience it. But to feel it is to be scared and happy at once and to know that nothing matters but that you do what you want to do and what you do you are. And I knew I was moving into the future. There is not PAST anybody can get to, to alter things or ever to know what those things were but there is definitely a future, we are already in it.” KnowsWantFeelsFirstsMatterEarthPastMovingSpaceFirst TimeScaredWhat You WantDrivingEmptinessSpinningRushingAxesNothing Matters Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“When writing goes painfully, when it’s hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real!)–then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when writing goes smoothly–why then one certainly should keep on working, since it would be stupid to stop. Consequently one is always writing or should be writing.” FeelsShouldWritingRealWould BeDifficultStupidOughtDespairSillyWorking ItRetreatCowardly Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“And I’m drawn to failure. I often write about it, and I’m sympathetic with it, I think, because I feel I’m contending with it constantly in my own life.” FeelsMy OwnMy Own LifeContending Author:Joyce Carol Oates
