"I've never given up. I've always kept going. I don't feel that I could afford to give up. That would be the beginning of the end."
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Joyce Carol Oates quotes (page 23 of 23)
453 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I always tell my students the same thing. And that's to live life, and to read very voraciously without any definite program. To travel, to meet people, to talk to people, to listen very carefully, and not interrupt, but listen to their own grandparents speak of their families."
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"I've always been so interested in personal history. I'm very fascinated by my parents' and my grandparents' generations. I seem to think that they had a resilience and an integrity that may be somewhat deficient in my own generation, and in subsequent generations as well, because America has been rather easy to live in since the Depression."
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"It's hard to say how we compare to other people. We each inhabit our own personalities. I have often felt that I'm a very neutral being and that I have almost no personality. I'm drawn to writing partly because I'm fascinated by the mimetic process."
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"Though I am never exactly "blocked" I do have difficult periods. I am led by a fascination with material - the challenge of presenting it in an original and engaging way. I have no problem imagining stories, characters, distinctive settings & themes - but the difficulty is choosing a voice & a language in which to present it."
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"Characters begin as voices, then gain presence by being viewed in others' eyes. Characters define one another in dramatic contexts. It is often very exciting, when characters meet - out of their encounters, unanticipated stories can spring."
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"Before I undertake a lengthy project, I have usually given much thought to it over a period of years. My files are filled with likely subjects - which perhaps, one day, I will develop."
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"There is nothing "ordinary" about reality."
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"Much of my writing is energized by unresolved memories - something like ghosts in the psychological sense."
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"There is no PAST anybody can get to, to alter things or even to know what those things were but there is definitely a future, we are already in it."
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"Cherie, keep walking. Shut your eyes. We are headed for the bridge. We are going to cross it."
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"It feels good, honey, but it isn't love."
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"Only when you have completed a novel, or a story, can you return to the beginning and revise or rewrite."
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