Joyce Carol Oates

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#read

The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#wisdom #love

See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#reason #life

In love there are two things - bodies and words. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#bodies #things #two #words

A daydreamer is prepared for most things. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#inspirational

He was ugly, himself. Weird-ugly. But ugliness in a man doesn't matter, much. Ugliness in a woman is her life. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#women #life

Keeing busy" is the remedy for all the ills in America. It's also the means by which the creative impulse is destroyed. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#business

Which is why we say I can't live without you meaning your life gives life to me, who am otherwise an empty vessel, nameless. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#life

I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#change

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. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#behind #car #doing #driving #housework