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Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

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Joyce Carol Oates is a renowned American author born on June 16, 1938. Her works span various literary forms such as novels, poetry, and drama, known for her unique narrative techniques and profound thematic explorations.

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All Writing Ifs People Thinking Art Knows Novel Might Way Book Stories Voice Men Self World Feels Reading Seems Humans Kind

Famous Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

“Ideas brush past fleeting and insubstantial as moths. But I let them go, I don't want them. What I want is a voice.”

Want Ideas Past Voice Brushes Fleeting Moths

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“It's a taboo subject. How the dead are betrayed by the living. We who are living--we who have survived--understand that our guilt is what links us to the dead. At all times we can hear them calling to us, a growing incredulity in their voices, You will not forget me -- will you? How can you forget me? I have no one but you.”

Voice Forget Growing Subjects Calling Guilt All Time Links Survived Betrayed Taboo Forget Me Incredulity

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Though I am never exactly "blocked" I do have difficult periods. I am led by a fascination with material - the challenge of presenting it in an original and engaging way. I have no problem imagining stories, characters, distinctive settings & themes - but the difficulty is choosing a voice & a language in which to present it.”

“Characters begin as voices, then gain presence by being viewed in others' eyes. Characters define one another in dramatic contexts. It is often very exciting, when characters meet - out of their encounters, unanticipated stories can spring.”

Character Stories Eye Voice Spring Gains Exciting Dramatic Encounters

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Writing allows for fictitious voices - the voices of persons unlike myself - that might otherwise be muted.”

Writing Persons Might Voice

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I rarely write in my own voice except in book reviews and memoirs; otherwise, I am writing in mediated voices, modulated in terms of the characters whom the voices express.”

Writing Book Character Voice Term My Own Memoir Reviews Book Review

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“To choose the ideal voice for a character is to give a character an ardent and vivid life, to allow him or her to speak, rather than speaking for them, in an older style of omniscient narration.”

Giving Character Speak Voice Style Ideals Vivid Ardent Omniscient Narration

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“If Shakespeare's great plays are variants of stories, even novels, you can see how each character is telling his story from his perspective; each is vying with the others for dominance, but in the end, in tragedy, most of these voices will die, to be replaced by the yet more vigorous voice of a younger generation.”

Ifs Ends Play Character Stories Dies Voice Novel Generations Perspective Tragedy Replaced Vigorous Dominance Younger Generation

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Shakespeare would seem to have been a person for whom the human voice/personality in all its splendid idiosyncrasy was absolutely enthralling.”

Humans Persons Has Beens Seems Voice Personality Splendid Human Voice Idiosyncrasies

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Sometimes I stumble upon a wonderfully irresistible to me voice, unexpectedly.”

Sometimes Voice Irresistible Stumble Upon

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“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.”

Way Writing Voice Fiction Wonderful Criticism Calm Rational Prose Essays Relaxation Essay Writing

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,' I provide a voice for someone who has died and can't speak for herself.”

People Writing Children Able Young Speak Black Voice Water Novel Died Including Young Children

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice.”

Writing Voice Emotion Communicate Prose Typing

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.”

Mean Book Soul Reading Voice Skins Slips Reading Books Sole Books And Reading Writers Reading Writing And Reading

Book:(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities

Source: (Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities

“If I try to summon back his face, the sound of his voice, and the sensation in my stomach like a key turning in a lock when he touched me, I lose everything.”

Ifs Trying Faces Sound Voice Loses Keys Touched Sensations Stomach Locks

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“This was before voice mail, recorded phone messages you can't escape. Life was easier then. You just didn't pick up the phone.”

Voice Easier Messages Picks Phones Mail

Book:Beasts

Source: Beasts

“Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard. The one is presumably articulate and social, a shared language, the voice of "communication"; the other is private, allusive, teasing, sly, idiosyncratic as the spider's delicate web, a kind of witchcraft unfathomable to ordinary minds.”

Writing Mind Kind Might Poetry Language Social Voice Communication Ordinary Prose Delicate Discourse Spiders Witchcraft Tease Unfathomable Sly

Book:(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities

Source: (Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities

“The regional voice is the universal voice.”

Voice Universal

Book:The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art

Source: The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art

About the Author

Born: June 16, 1938
Known for: Author
Quotes: 500

Books & Sources

Conversations with Joyce Carol OatesRelated source material

(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunitiesRelated source material

The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, ArtRelated source material

BlondeRelated source material

I Am No One You Know: And Other StoriesRelated source material

On BoxingRelated source material

A Fair MaidenRelated source material

The AccursedRelated source material

Foxfire: confessions of a girl gangRelated source material

The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982Related source material

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