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Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

“Productivity is a relative matter. And it's really insignificant: What is ultimately important is a writer's strongest books. It may be the case that we all must write many books in order to achieve a few lasting ones - just as a young writer or poet might have to write hundreds of poems before writing his first significant one.”

Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

Book:Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Work

Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates is a compilation of insightful discussions with the celebrated American author. The book offers a glimpse into Oates' creative mind, exploring her perspectives on literature, her writing techniques, and the evolution of her career. It provides a comprehensive look at her life and work, offering readers a deeper understanding of the author's thoughts and influences. 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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“Sometimes I read reviews, and without exception I will read critical essays that are sent to me. The critical essays are interesting on their own terms.”

Sometimes Term Interesting Critical Exception Reviews Essays

Book:Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Source: Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

“'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves.”

“The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn't read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial.”

Book Enjoy New York Reviews

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“The domestic lives we live - which may be accidental, or not entirely of our making - help to make possible our writing lives; our imaginations are freed, or stimulated, by the very prospect of companionship, quiet, a predictable and consoling routine.”

Writing May Helping Imagination Quiet Routine Companionship Writing Life Predictable Consoling Domestic Life

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“The historical Woodrow Wilson suffered from numerous complaints which we might today label as psychosomatic. Yet, Wilson did have a stroke as a relatively young man of 39 and seemed always to be ill. He was 'high-strung' - intensely neurotic - yet a charismatic personality nonetheless.”

Men Might Today Young Personality Historical Ill Labels Young Man Complaints Strokes Neurotic Wilson Charismatic High Strung

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way.”

Way Children Mother Parent Powerful Daughter Rational Mother And Daughter Children And Parents

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.”

Ifs Knows Should May Art Sometimes Character Seems Reader Works Of Art Passages

Author: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.”

Character Given Novel Personality Involved Being True Inevitable Novelists True Life

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“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