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
The written word, obviously, is very inward, and when we're reading, we're thinking. It's a sort of spiritual, meditative activity. When we're looking at visual objects, I think our eyes are obviously directed outward, so there's not as much reflective time. And it's the reflectiveness and the spiritual inwardness about reading that appeals to me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading engages our minds in a reflective and meditative process that fosters inner thought.
Joyce Carol Oates highlights the introspective nature of reading compared to visual experiences. While reading stimulates deep thinking and spiritual reflection, engaging the mind in a way that encourages contemplation, visual stimuli tend to draw our focus outward, leading to a more superficial engagement. This distinction illustrates the unique value of written words as tools for inner exploration and understanding.
Themes
ReadingReflectionSpiritualMeditationThought
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on literature, this quote can be used to illustrate the depth of thought that reading encourages.
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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Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
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Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.
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