Novels begin, not on the page, but in meditation and day-dreaming - In thinking, not writing.

I don't teach literature from my perspective as 'Joyce Carol Oates.' I try to teach fiction from the perspective of each writer. If I'm teaching a story by Hemingway, my endeavor is to present the story that Hemingway wrote in its fullest realization.

This was before voice mail, recorded phone messages you can't escape. Life was easier then. You just didn't pick up the phone.

the art of reading hardly differs from the art of writing, in that its most intense pleasures and pains must remains private, and cannot be communicated to others.

I haven't the faintest idea what my royalties are. I haven't the faintest idea how many copies of books sold, or how many books that I've written. I could look these things up; I have no interest in them. I don't know how much money I have. There are a lot of things I just don't care about.

I was brought up to be sympathetic toward others.

We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language.