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
I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Revision is crucial in the writing process, accounting for most of a writer's time.
Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes the importance of revision in writing, suggesting that great writing is not just about the initial creation of ideas, but significantly about refining and improving those ideas through extensive editing. This quote highlights how successful writers dedicate a substantial portion of their efforts to revising their works to enhance clarity, coherence, and overall quality.
Themes
RevisionWritingEditingCreativityProcess
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, I shared a quote by Joyce Carol Oates to emphasize the importance of revising our drafts.
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 am always doing what I can't do yet in order to learn how to do it.
Vincent Van GoghRead
I was taught that if you're going to study something, you must understand it deeply and be familiar with primary sources. But if you write a history of the whole world, you can't do this. That's the trade-off.
Yuval Noah HarariRead
I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray and ask God to use him in His work; but God cannot make much use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon.
Dwight L. MoodyRead
Sometimes you buy a book, powerfully drawn to it, but then it just sits on the shelf. Maybe you flick through it, the ghost of your original purpose at your elbow, but it's not so much rereading as re-dusting. Then one day you pick it up, take notice of the contents; your inner life realigns.
Hilary MantelRead
Secretly, in studies and attics and schoolrooms all over America, people must be writing.
Sylvia PlathRead
My chief identity, to my mind, was not 'writer' but 'college dropout.'
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead