Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the complexity of life and how artists perceive the world differently from politicians.
Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes that both life and people are not straightforward; they encompass a multitude of nuances and complexities. Writers, as artists, possess a unique perspective that diverges from that of political figures, who often present a simplified view of realities to the public. This differentiation suggests that art captures the multifaceted essence of human experience, while politics may reduce it to binary choices.
Themes
ComplexityArtPerspectiveWriterPolitician
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the role of artists in society during a webinar.
More from Joyce Carol Oates
All quotes βI never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Similar quotes
I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.
Richard AvedonRead
The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle.
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The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts.
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You do not write a novel for praise, or thinking of your audience. You write for yourself; you work out between you and your pen the things that intrigue you
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Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.
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My touchstone started out being - and is still - exploring the ways by which to make clothing from a single piece of cloth.
Issey MiyakeRead