29 quotes
At a time when politics deals in distortions and half truths, truth is to be found in the liberal arts. There's something afoot in this country and you are very much a part of it.
Address at Mount Holyoke College (2006)
When people say there is too much violence in [my books], what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.
Prose — it might be speculated — is discourse; poetry ellipsis.
Critics sometimes appear to be addressing themselves to works other than those I remember writing.
Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.
If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?
Boxing is for men, and is about men, and is men. A celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.
On Boxing (1987)
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Do What You Will (1970)
Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.
My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives.
Joyce Carol Oates interviews herself (2013)
Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.
On Boxing (1987)
It is not her body that he wants but it is only through her body that he can take possession of another human being, so he must labor upon her body, he must enter her body, to make his claim.
It's one of those secrets that's embarrassing to acknowledge, but we do love our students.
Address at Mount Holyoke College (2006)
Constant interruptions are the destruction of imagination.
If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework — you can still be writing, because you have that space.
Love commingled with hate is more powerful than love. Or hate.
On Boxing (1987)
When you’re 50 you start thinking about things you haven’t thought about before. I used to think getting old was about vanity — but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial.
Boxing has become America’s tragic theater.
On Boxing (1987)
To be knocked out doesn’t mean what it seems. A boxer does not have to get up.
On Boxing (1987)
I think that art is the commemoration of life in its variety.
Joyce Carol Oates interviews herself (2013)