“ Ian...paused for a moment on the threshold and stared, overcome by a sudden sense of confronting, not the men and women who were his friends, but a gathering of souls. How strange we are to one anothe… Joyce Carol Oates
“ I live now for my work. I live for my work. I live only for my work. One day I will do work deserving of my talent & desire. One day. This I pledge. This I vow. I want you to love me for my work. But… Joyce Carol Oates
“ How strange it is, to be walking away. Is it possible that I am really going to leave Ray—here? Is it possible that he won’t be coming home with me in another day or two, as we’d planned? Such a thoug… Joyce Carol Oates
“ Her visits to her former hometown were infrequent and often painful. Pilgrimages fueled by the tepid oxygen of family duty, unease, guilt. The more Esther loved her parents, the more helpless she felt… Joyce Carol Oates
“ Her long periods of intense concentration began to be punctuated by bouts of directionless daydreaming, sudden explosions of feeling. At such times Shakespeare was too dangerous to be read closely—Ham… Joyce Carol Oates
“ HUSBAND: Is something wrong?BETHIE: Why--why do you ask?HUSBAND: You looked so lonely, suddenly. As if you'd forgotten I'm here. Joyce Carol Oates
“ But so like Hollywood people, who played at the emotions they truly felt. Or maybe the emotions they truly felt could only be expressed in play? Joyce Carol Oates
“ A female is essentially a cunt, the pure purpose of the female is cunt, but a woman, a wife, is a cunt with a mouth, a man has to reckon with. It's a sobering fact: you start off with a cunt, you wind… Joyce Carol Oates
“ Such speculation is like staring into the hot white sun. you know the sun is there but you can't see a thing. Joyce Carol Oates
“ The mirror above the bureau—a flushed blurred face. I had learned to look quickly away from that face for so often I hated what I saw. Joyce Carol Oates
“ You ordinary people who read and do not write, who 'like to read' and know nothing of the sufferings of writers, how fortunate you are! Joyce Carol Oates
“ Why should I want what's good for me?' Beatrice asked him, smiling. 'Is that what you want for yourself - only what's good for you? Joyce Carol Oates
“ There are some secrets so toxic you can’t share. Especially if you love who it is you’d have to share with. Joyce Carol Oates
“ The heavenly light you admire is fossil-light, it's the unfathomably distant past you gaze into, stars long extinct Joyce Carol Oates
“ The coolly calibrated manipulation of the credulous American public, by an administration bent upon stoking paranoid patriotism! Joyce Carol Oates
“ The challenge is to resist circumstances. Any idiot can be happy in a happy place, but moral courage is required to be happy in a hellhole. Joyce Carol Oates
“ The Bog Kingdom. Bidding him enter! Ah, enter! There, all wishes are fulfilled. The more forbidden, the more delicious. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Still, I am angry with him. I am very angry with him. With my poor dead defenseless husband, I am furious as I was rarely—perhaps never—furious with him, in life. How can I forgive you, you’ve ruined… Joyce Carol Oates
