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
Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Completing a first draft is a challenging and uncomfortable task.
Joyce Carol Oates uses the metaphor of pushing a peanut with one's nose across a dirty floor to illustrate the difficulties and uncomfortable nature of writing a first draft. This vivid image captures the struggles that writers often face, emphasizing that the creative process can be messy and arduous, yet it is a necessary step towards producing a polished piece of work.
Themes
WritingCreativityFirst DraftStruggleMetaphor
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, I shared that getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose.
More from Joyce Carol Oates
All quotes →I 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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