#rite

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#come #enough #idea #ideas #novel

Honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards are very encouraging. I know that it might sound strange that a writer who has published many books still needs encouragement, but this is true. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#awards #books #degrees #encouragement #encouraging

I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#am #another #art #comes #conflict

If my favorite, most comfortable place is by our fireplace in cold weather, expedient places are on an airplane, in a waiting room or even waiting in line; frequently these days, while on the phone having been 'put on hold.' ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#been #cold #cold weather #comfortable #days

It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she, or he, is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#ask #disingenuous #filled #history #seems

No, the thing is, we all love storytelling, and as a writer you get to tell stories all the time. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#love #stories #storytelling #tell #thing

Productivity is a relative matter. And it's really insignificant: What is ultimately important is a writer's strongest books. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#important #insignificant #matter #productivity #really

When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#aside #begin #complete #desk #drawer

You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#energy #goes #much #need #negative

We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges. ↗

— Barack Obama

#criterion #disabled #empathy #gay #got