Joyce Oates Quotations

Lots of people I was starting to hate who I used to like a lot. But when you like people, you can hurt. I'd made a few mistakes with girl friends, and one or two guys I'd thought were my buddies, and I wouldn't make these mistakes again.

She ransacked her mind but there was nothing in it

Nothing is accidental in the universe -- this is one of my Laws of Physics -- except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity.

I feel that in my novel I'm trying to re-address that imbalance and allow people to see that Norma Jeane was quite sensitive and intelligent, ... She read a great deal, she tried to write poetry. She was hoping to be a serious actress. But in a sense, it was too late because the American public just wanted the stereotype from her.

Our house is made of glass . . . and our lives are made of glass; and there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves.

When I first began publishing, I was writing short stories and novels about subjects that only men were writing about -- violence and men's lives,

When poets write about food it is usually celebratory. Food as the thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful preparation of meals, the serving of meals, meals communally shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane.

Study until twenty five, investigate until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.

The Falls ... a story written with Shakespearean proportions, pitting the power of blood ties against the needs of the individual and the larger community.