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Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

“I've always been so interested in personal history. I'm very fascinated by my parents' and my grandparents' generations. I seem to think that they had a resilience and an integrity that may be somewhat deficient in my own generation, and in subsequent generations as well, because America has been rather easy to live in since the Depression.”

Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

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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“My parents inspired me by their example. They both grew up in the Depression, and both of them had to quit school when they were quite young to work, because there actually was no choice. So they've always impressed me with their resilience, their good spirits, their courage. I just remember them carrying on and just doing their lives. They really made a strong impression on me.”

Made School Remember Young Spirit Choices Strong Parent Example Grew Grew Up Inspired Resilience Quitting Impression Impressed Carrying On

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I see the world in ways that might be considered somewhat harsh and Darwinistic. At the same time mediated, as in Darwin, by a real idealism and an excitement about the possibilities of the intellect and imagination to deal with this somewhat brutal world.”

World Way Real Might Imagination Deals Possibility Intellect Excitement Brutal Harsh Idealism

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.”

Giving Feels Ends Would Be Given Giving Up Given Up

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“By the way of connecting with subject, with theme, I was able to find a kind of lifeline. Writing's like a lifeline. You have to get the right way in. Otherwise the material just lies there, and you can't do anything with it.”

Way Writing Kind Able Lying Subjects Materials Theme Right Way Connecting Lifelines

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.”

Way Feels Turns Interest Amount Fairs Making Money Depressing Earning Invitations Earning Money

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I think what distresses me most in my life is that I have so many ideas I consider exciting ideas that I will never live to execute because it takes me so long to execute.”

Thinking Long Ideas Life Is Exciting Take Me Distress

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“When one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.”

Thinking Writing Made Self Consciousness Teacher Effects Activity Crosses Supreme Verbs Pretentious Self Consciousness Nouns

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Henry David Thoreau is very independent-minded, very iconoclastic, and had quite a corrosive sense of humor. I think that I probably have grown up to have a Thoreauvian perspective on many things. Though in other ways I live a life he would not have approved of. He believed to simplify, simplify, simplify. Make your life very clear and plain and meditative and not confused. Sometimes my life, in fact, is confused.”

Thinking Way Sometimes Facts Clear Perspective Independent Confused Sense Of Humor Simplify Approved David Thoreau

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“It's hard to say how we compare to other people. We each inhabit our own personalities. I have often felt that I'm a very neutral being and that I have almost no personality. I'm drawn to writing partly because I'm fascinated by the mimetic process.”

People Writing Hard Felt Process Personality Compare Fascinated

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I don't know whether I am different from other people. Perhaps I am. Perhaps no one has a personality, and people are inventing themselves in the context in which they find themselves.”

People Knows Different Personality Inventing

Author:Joyce Carol Oates