#w

The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn't read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#enjoy #i #i do #most #much

The cleaning is something I use as a reward if I get some work done. I go into a very happy state of mind when I'm vacuuming. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#done #get #go #happy #i

To be Jewish is to be specifically identified with a history. And if you're not aware of that when you're a child, the whole tradition is lost. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#child #history #identified #jewish #lost

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

Where we come from in America no longer signifies. It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#come #get #go #longer #signifies

I know I am at the end. I shall never get better, dear. ↗

— Lillie Langtry

#better #dear #end #get #i

Yes, I've listened to just a few audiobooks - but hope to listen to more. I've wanted to investigate how my own books sound in this format and find the experience of listening, and not reading, quite fascinating. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#experience #fascinating #few #find #format

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

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ↗

— Barack Obama

#been #come #ones #other #person

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential. ↗

— Barack Obama

#asks #because #buck #certain #focusing