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Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

“The body can't distinguish between cleansing and punishing for the body is ignorant, and mute besides.”

Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

Book:Snapshots: 20th century mother-daughter fiction

Work

Snapshots: 20th century mother-daughter fiction

This compilation delves into the intricate dynamics of mother-daughter bonds, showcasing a variety of narratives that span the century's cultural and social changes. more

Author

Joyce Carol Oates

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. more

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“The fellowship of those who bear the mark of pain: who are the members of this Fellowship? Those who have learnt by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; they are united by a secret bond.”

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Book:The Primeval Forest

Source: The Primeval Forest

“There's a certain window of time in the middle of the night out in Middle America where there's no bar open and nothing on TV. If you don't want to do too many drugs, you have to start bodily mutilation.”

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Author:Ani DiFranco

“Mutilation is the badge that can never be taken off, and sets us apart from all others. Pain is important to the bonding-a physical horror that bonds us ever tighter to all those who have partaken. The intensity of the experience helps to widen the gulf between us and those who have not shared.”

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Author:Clive Barker

“A scar nobly got is a good livery of honor.”

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Book:Aphorisms from Shakespeare; arranged according to the plays,&c. With a preface and notes, etc. [By C. Lofft.]

Source: Aphorisms from Shakespeare; arranged according to the plays,&c. With a preface and notes, etc. [By C. Lofft.]

“A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.”

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Book:Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

“I just like the company of beautiful women. I have a weakness in that department.”

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Author:Eric Clapton

“There's something in us that is very much attracted to madness. Everyone who looks off the edge of a tall building has felt at least a faint, morbid urge to jump. And anyone who has ever put a loaded pistol up to his head... All right, my point is this: even the most well-adjusted person is holding onto his or her sanity by a greased rope. I really believe that. The rationality circuits are shoddily built into the human animal.”

“For exactly the same reason, it is sometimes satisfying to cut yourself and bleed. On those gray [sic] days where eight in the morning looks no different from noon and nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen and you are washing a glass in the sink and it breaks - accidentally - and punctures your skin. And then there is this shocking red, the brightest thing in the day, so vibrant it buzzes, this blood of yours. That is okay sometimes because at least you know you're alive.”

“One night she hid the pink cotton scarf from her raincoat in the pillowcase when the nurse came around to lock up her drawers and closets for the night. In the dark she had made a loop and tried to pull it tight around her throat. But always just as the air stopped coming and she felt the rushing grow louder in her ears, her hands would slacken and let go, and she would lie there panting for breath, cursing the dumb instinct in her body that fought to go on living”

“You wake up and you feel - what? Heaviness, an ache inside, a weight, yes. A soft crumpling of the flesh. A feeling like all the surfaces inside you have been rubbed raw. A voice in your head - no, not voices, not like hearing voices, nothing that crazy, just your own inner voice, the one that says 'Turn left at the corner' or 'Don't forget to stop at the post office,' only now it's saying, 'I hate myself.' It's saying, 'I want to die.'”