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
It is only through disruptions and confusion that we grow, jarred out of ourselves by the collision of someone else's private world with our own.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Growth often stems from experiencing disruptions and challenges that clash with our own perspectives.
This quote by Joyce Carol Oates suggests that personal growth occurs when we are faced with interruptions and challenges, particularly those that arise from interactions with others. The friction created by differing viewpoints forces us to reassess our beliefs and expand our understanding, leading to transformation and development.
Themes
GrowthChangeDisruptionConfusionCollaboration
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
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
The only permanent and constructive changes you can make in the world are the changes that you make in yourself.
Gary ZukavRead
If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future, but it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we can have a world that supports robust communities of healthy, creative people and ecosystems with millions of other species.
Richard HeinbergRead
It is in revolutionary periods that the culmination of previous trends and the beginning of new ones appear.
C. L. R. JamesRead
President Kennedy has named two Negroes to District Judgeships and appointed Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals. When I came to the Department of Justice, there were only ten Negroes employed as lawyers; not a single Negro served as a United States Attorney - or ever had in the history of the country. That has been changed.
Robert KennedyRead
When the history of African development is written, it will be clear that a turning point involved the empowerment of women.
Sheryl WudunnRead
Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change.
Brian TracyRead