“ Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a very dirty peanut across the floor with your nose. Joyce Carol Oates
“ For obviously the advantage for most writers is that no one sees them. The writer is invisible, which confers power. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Probably nothing serious or worthwhile can be accomplished without one's willingness to be alone for sustained periods of time, which is not to say that one must live alone, obsessively. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Of all psychic conditions, anxiety verging upon paranoia/hysteria is perhaps the most contagious, even among men. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Then the noise faded and Legs squinted up at the sky, the moon so bright you'd never think it could be merely rock like the earth's common rock and lifeless, merely reflected light from an invisible s… Joyce Carol Oates
“ The distinction between assistant and intern is a simple one: assistants are paid, interns are not.But of course interns are paid, in experience. Joyce Carol Oates
“ That glass sliver in the heart. Amid a fluttery-delicious Benzedrine rush, virtually every remark made to you is freighted with destiny, a sweet-painful stab in the heart. And Benzedrine and champagne… Joyce Carol Oates
“ THANK YOU but please do not write again. And do not call. I have had enough of you. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Our lives can only be interpreted in retrospect, yet must be lived from day to day, blindly. What folly, the human condition! Joyce Carol Oates
“ Legs was always proud even before FOXFIRE, that’s the primary fact about Legs Sadovsky: pride. Joyce Carol Oates
“ Know what 'celebrity' is kid? Being paid to bullshit the rest of your natural life. Joyce Carol Oates
“ I'm sure all that you've heard is just the usual gossip, invented to injure feelings rather than illuminate truth. Joyce Carol Oates
“ How ironic, it seemed to me, yet, perhaps, how symbolic, that in our age of rapid mass production and the easy proliferation of consumer products, the richness and diversity of the American literary i… Joyce Carol Oates
“ For what are the words with which to summarize a lifetime, so much crowded confused happiness terminated by such stark slow-motion pain? Joyce Carol Oates
“ Ever rising like the souls of the damned seeking salvation, Ariah said to Dirk Burnaby, in one of her rare moments of noticing him. Her fixed, wistful smile made him shudder.) Joyce Carol Oates
“ Derailed. In exile. Deeply ashamed, despised. Yet she had so little pride, she was grateful most days simply to be alive.There is Minimalist art; there are minimalist lives. Joyce Carol Oates
“ My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreaming - as we can't live without sleep. We are 'conscious' beings for o… Joyce Carol Oates
“ As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel, in one sense, is a problem-solving exerc… Joyce Carol Oates
