Joyce Carol Oates

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

My belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.
― Joyce Carol Oates

"Keeping 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, The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982

Writing is a consequence of having been 'haunted' by material. Why this is, no one knows.
― Joyce Carol Oates

I had forgotten that time wasn't fixed like concrete but in fact was fluid as sand, or water. I had forgotten that even misery can end.
― Joyce Carol Oates, I am No One You Know

Every scar in my face is worth it.
― Joyce Carol Oates