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
If you're living with a scientist, you see the world differently than you do with a humanist. It's in some ways very subtle, the differences in perceiving reality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates how different intellectual perspectives shape our understanding of reality.
Joyce Carol Oates suggests that living with individuals from different academic backgrounds, such as scientists and humanists, alters oneβs perception of the world. The contrasting methodologies and thought processes of these disciplines lead to varied interpretations of reality, highlighting the subtle yet profound impact of our intellectual environments on our worldview.
Themes
PerspectiveRealityScienceHumanismPerception
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about academic influences on personal beliefs, this quote emphasizes the importance of perspective.
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
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Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion.
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Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.
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