#writ

If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it. ↗

— Robert B. Parker

#get #going #me #other #parents

As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel, in one sense, is a problem-solving exercise. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#good #hard #i #just #make

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

Criticism is, for me, like essay writing, a wonderful way of relaxation; it doesn't require a heightened and mediated voice, like prose fiction, but rather a calm, rational, even conversational voice. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#conversational #criticism #essay #even #fiction

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 probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#my time #probably #revising #spend #time

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

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#faulkner #hemingway #high #high school #i

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