When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.
Joyce Carol OatesHow mysterious it is, to be in love. For you can be in love with one who knows nothing of you. Perhpas our greatest happinesses spring from such longings-being in love with one who is oblivious of you.
Joyce Carol OatesExotic: meaning you're "desired." For madness is seductive, sexy. Female madness. So long as the female is reasonably young and attractive.
Joyce Carol OatesTo the west, the Pacific Ocean, which revulses me, for its vastness cannot be fitted into any box.
Joyce Carol OatesParadox: how do we know what we have failed to see because we have no language to express it, thus we cannot know that we have failed to see it.
Joyce Carol OatesWhen one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.
Joyce Carol Oates