Joyce Carol Oates
Birthday:
16 June 1938, Lockport, New York, USA
Height:
173 cm
Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16, 1938 in Lockport, New York, USA. She is a writer, known for Foxfire (1996), Smooth Talk (1985) and Foxfire (2012). She has been married to Charles Gross since March 2009. She was previously married to Raymond Smith.
[on having children] No, I don't think so, but then I was never strongly maternal. My brother also doesn't have children, it could be geneti...Show more »
[on having children] No, I don't think so, but then I was never strongly maternal. My brother also doesn't have children, it could be genetic, but it could be that I was so very interested in writing that I just didn't have time, although I do like children. My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontës. Show less «
I'm drawn to failure. I feel like I'm contending with it constantly in my own life.
I'm drawn to failure. I feel like I'm contending with it constantly in my own life.
I am concerned with only one thing, the moral and social conditions of my generation.
I am concerned with only one thing, the moral and social conditions of my generation.
[on not having an assistant] No, I'm too shy to hire anyone. I couldn't bear the thought of it. I remember Margaret Drabble saying that it w...Show more »
[on not having an assistant] No, I'm too shy to hire anyone. I couldn't bear the thought of it. I remember Margaret Drabble saying that it was really hard for her to hire a cleaning woman because it seemed like hiring her own mother. We're from a background where we did the cleaning ourselves. Show less «
[on self-respect] We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it's go...Show more »
[on self-respect] We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it's gone--its value is incontestable. Show less «
[on desire] In love there are two things: bodies and words.
[on desire] In love there are two things: bodies and words.
[on time] Surpassingly lovely, precious days. What is there to say except: here they are. Sifting through my fingers like sand.
[on time] Surpassingly lovely, precious days. What is there to say except: here they are. Sifting through my fingers like sand.
[on art] We are stimulated to emotional response not by works that confirm our sense of the world, but by works that challenge it.
[on art] We are stimulated to emotional response not by works that confirm our sense of the world, but by works that challenge it.
[on spirit] How reluctant the world is to grant complexity in us...how reluctant we all are. Though knowing ourselves mysterious, subtle, co...Show more »
[on spirit] How reluctant the world is to grant complexity in us...how reluctant we all are. Though knowing ourselves mysterious, subtle, complex, self-contradictory. Show less «
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