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
Not what the mind sees, but what the mind imagines the eye must see.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that imagination is more powerful than mere perception.
Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes that true vision comes not just from what we observe with our eyes, but from the limitless possibilities that our minds can conjure. It highlights the importance of creativity and imagination in shaping our understanding of the world.
Themes
ImaginationPerceptionVisionCreativityArt
In practice
Example use cases
An artist might use this quote to inspire their creative process.
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
Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory. A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can make a galaxy out of the chaos, can point to the fact that some people survived even as most people died. And can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks.
Jane YolenRead
If you're going to be honest with yourself, you have to admit that you go into show business wanting people to talk about you and wanting everyone to know who you are. But that also means there are going to be a whole bunch of people who don't like you. No matter who you are.
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As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
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When people say, 'I don't get art' ... that means art is working.
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From the very beginning, I was very interested just in light, and art seemed to be a way to work with it.
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The human soul needs actual beauty even more than bread.
D. H. LawrenceRead