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Joyce Johnson

Joyce Johnson Quotes

Author

Joyce Johnson is an American author born on September 27, 1935. Known for her autobiographical novels and literary criticism, her most famous work is 'How to Be a Woman'. Her writing style is deeply influenced by French existentialism and feminist thought.

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All Artist Ifs People Age Art Boys Creative Girl Privacy Sacrifice

Famous Joyce Johnson Quotes

“If time were like a passage of music, you could keep going back to it till you got it right.”

Time Music Second Chances

Book:Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

“Legend adheres to artists whose deaths seem the corollaries of their works.”

Seems Artist Legends

Book:Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

“Everyone knew in the 1950s why a girl from a nice family left home. The meaning of her theft of herself from her parents was clear to all - as well as what she'd be up to in that room of her own.”

Wells Home Girl Left Parent Rooms Clear Nice Judgment Theft Disapproval Nice Family

Book:Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

“I believe in the curative powers of love as the English believe in tea or Catholics believe in the Miracle of Lourdes.”

Believe I Believe Miracle Catholic I Believe In Tea Power Of Love Lourdes

Book:Minor Characters

Source: Minor Characters

“media saturation is probably very destructive to art. New movements get overexposed and exhausted before they have a chance to grow, and they turn to ashes in a short time. Some degree of time and obscurity is often very necessary to artists.”

Art Artist Turns Grows Chance Media Movement Degrees Destructive Ashes Exhausted Publicity Obscurity Short Time Saturation

Author:Joyce Johnson

“Nothing ever happened except God.”

Book:Minor Characters

Source: Minor Characters

“I was always aware that Jack loved women not only for their bodies but for the stories that came into being as they interacted with him-they were part of his “road,” the infinite range of experience that always had to remain open to fuel his work.”

Stories Body Infinite Range Fuel

Author:Joyce Johnson

“What if you lived your entire life completely without urgency? You went to classes, you ate your meals, on Saturday nights a boy you didn't love took you to the movies; now and then you actually had a conversation with someone. The rest of the time -the hours that weren't accounted for-you spent waiting for something to happen to you; when you were particularly desperate, you went out looking for it.”

Ifs Happens Night Waiting Hours Class Boys Conversation Meals Desperate What If Now And Then Saturday Urgency Saturday Night Waiting For Something

Book:Come and Join the Dance: A Novel

Source: Come and Join the Dance: A Novel

“Jack Kerouac seems to have been preoccupied with the question of duality from a very young age. He seemed to feel that there was more than one person inside him. Indeed he would veer from friendly, open and so on to someone who was angry. In a way, there was a swing also between his American self and what he later called his Franco-American older brother. There was a swing between the deeply introverted part of himself and the person he became out in the world, having to act in an extroverted way.”

World Age Brother Friendly Duality Older Brother Introverted

Author:Joyce Johnson

“We derive a lot of the reality of ourselves through interactions with others.”

Author:Joyce Johnson

“I think art, the discipline of creating, really does require tremendous solitude. But the whole creative process can seal your life to such an extent that while you're creating, you feel very self-sufficient. I've certainly experienced that.”

Thinking Art Creative Discipline Solitude Creative Process Seals

Author:Joyce Johnson

“Sacrificing everything for one's craft is something some people can't help. They can't help themselves. They must do it. They're driven to do it.”

People Helping Sacrifice Driven

Author:Joyce Johnson

“If you want to do creative work, there are tremendous sacrifices involved, and tremendous financial sacrifices too. It requires dedication and solitude.”

Creative Sacrifice Solitude Financial Dedication Creative Work

Author:Joyce Johnson

“I think even celebrities deserve their privacy. I really do. It's sort of a hideous spectacle, the public feeding on all this information.”

Thinking Deserve Privacy

Author:Joyce Johnson

“Fame and success put tremendous demands on people. It robs them of their necessary privacy and anonymity. That's hard for even healthy people to deal with.”

People Healthy Fame Privacy Anonymity

Author:Joyce Johnson

“A lot of artists don't survive, do they? You work very hard and finally you get what you want and it destroys you.”

Author:Joyce Johnson

“Jack Kerouac did what he most wanted to do. He wrote great prose. He became the writer he wanted to be.”

Author:Joyce Johnson

“If time were like a passage of music, you could keep going back to it until you got it right.”

Ifs Keep Going Passages

Book:Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

“I'd learned myself by the age of sixteen that just as girls guarded their virginity, boys guarded something less tangible which they called Themselves.”

Age Girl Boys Tangible Sixteen Virginity Guarded

Book:Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

“I became intent on saving him through showing him that he was loved.”

Author:Joyce Johnson

“We tend to make up the people we fall in love with”

People Fall Falling In Love

Book:Bad Connections: A Novel

Source: Bad Connections: A Novel

“Rebels defy the rules of society, risking everything to retain their humanity. If the world Atwood depicts is chilling, if 'God is losing,' the only hope for optimism is a vision that includes the inevitability of human struggle against the prevailing order.”

Ifs World Humans Humanity Order Vision Struggle Losing Optimism Rebel Chill Prevailing Inevitability

Author:Joyce Johnson

About the Author

Born: September 27, 1935
Known for: Author
Quotes: 22

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Minor Characters: A Beat MemoirRelated source material

Minor CharactersRelated source material

Bad Connections: A NovelRelated source material

Come and Join the Dance: A NovelRelated source material

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