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Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

“To be true to life, a novel must have an ending that is inevitable given the specific personalities of the characters involved. The novelist must not impose an ending upon them.”

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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“To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it.”

People Writing Dream Next Vision Steps Novel Saws Strange Projects Scream Quests Next Steps Very Romantic

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“We are all regionalists in our origins, however 'universal' our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root - almost literally.”

Soul Character Would Be Childhood Roots Universal Plant Landscape Theme Soil Shallow Hometown

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“'We Were the Mulvaneys' is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valentine to a passing way of American life, and to my own particular child - and girlhood in upstate New York. Everyone in the novel is enormously close to me, including Marianne's cat, Muffin, who was in fact my own cat.”

Thinking Way Heart Children Facts My Own Novel New York Particular My Heart Cat Including Passing Passings Closest Valentine American Life Girlhood Muffins Upstate New York

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer.”

Long Stories Lying Novel Return Short Story Desks Drawers

Book:Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Source: Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

“When I was very little, four or five, I did comic strip drawings, so my first novel had no words. I couldn't write and thought adult handwriting was a mysterious scribble. When I was 14, my grandmother gave me a typewriter and I started writing in a different way.”

Way Writing Firsts Littles Different Novel Five Four Adults Drawing Mysterious Comic Different Ways Grandmother My Grandmother Typewriters Handwriting Comic Strips Scribbles

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.”

Giving Feels Looks May Enough Wanted Pain Lasts Lying Certain Individual My Own Secret Motive Relief Telling The Truth Family Life Secrecy Detachment

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“When my brother called to inform me, on the morning of May 22, 2003, that our mother Caroline Oates had died suddenly of a stroke, it was a shock from which, in a way, I have yet to recover.”

Way May Mother Morning Brother Died My Brother Shock Strokes

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

“Writers and artists never pay attention to advice given by their elders, quite rightly. The only worthwhile advice is the most general: Keep trying, don't give up, don't be discouraged, don't pay attention to detractors. Everyone knows this.”

Knows Giving Trying Artist Given Pay Attention Advice Giving Up Pay Attention Worthwhile Elders Discouraged Keep Trying Don't Give Up

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an experimental novel.”

Knows Night Novel Fables Tender Is The Night Scott Fitzgerald Best Novel

Author:Joyce Carol Oates