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
When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literary writing involves expressing deeper emotions and finding a unique voice rather than merely typing words.
In this quote, Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes that literary writing transcends the mechanical act of typing. It requires a profound connection to emotions and a poetic sensibility, allowing the writer to convey subtext and craft a distinct voice that resonates with readers. This process of developing such a voice and emotional depth takes time and dedication.
Themes
LiteraryWritingVoiceEmotionsPoetry
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, you could share this quote to emphasize the emotional depth needed in literary writing.
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
Similar quotes
My restaurant is an expression of myself - my fantasies. Where I've been, and where I want to be. I think of my cooking as very emotional.
Dominique CrennRead
I'm creating an imaginary — it's always imaginary — world in which I would like to live.
William S. BurroughsRead
Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.
Joseph BrodskyRead
Only the free-wheeling artist-explorer, non-academic, scientist-philosopher, mechanic, economist-poet who has never waited for patron-starting and accrediting of his co-ordinate capabilities holds the prime initiative today.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
I'm very opinionated about movie musicals when they're adapted from live shows. You'll sit still for a three-minute song in a theater. But in movies, a glance from someone's eyes will tell you the whole story in a few seconds.
Stephen SondheimRead
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.
Stanley KunitzRead