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'm the kind of person who would love to play whenever I felt like, with a band, and it might as well be the Holiday Inn in Nebraska - somewhere where no one knows you, and you're in a band situation just playing music.
George HarrisonRead
What the really great artists do is they're entirely themselves. They're entirely themselves. They've got their own vision, they have their own way of fracturing reality, and if it's authentic and true, you will feel it in your nerve endings.
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The practice of art isn't to make a living. It's to make your soul grow.
Kurt VonnegutRead
On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.
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Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.
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If I didn't have my camera to remind me constantly, I am here to do this, I would eventually have slipped away, I think. I would have forgotten my reason to exist.
Annie LeibovitzRead