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
Writing! The activity for which the only adequate bribe is the possibility of suicide, one day.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing can be a difficult and tormenting process, often leading to a sense of despair.
This quote by Joyce Carol Oates highlights the intense struggles and emotional turmoil that writers face in their craft. The phrase suggests that the challenges of writing can be so overwhelming that the only motivation strong enough to sustain a writer is the existential weight of their own thoughts, implying that the act of writing may sometimes feel like a desperate plea for meaning or escape from suffering.
Themes
WritingStruggleDespairCreativityArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop when discussing the emotional challenges of the craft.
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
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