Joyce Carol Oates

"The worst thing that ever happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you."

"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced."

"Writing is a form of prayer."

"The most powerful word in the English language is 'story'; the person who has the best story wins."

"Do not allow yourself to hate, as, history shows, this weakens and defeats the person who hates."

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself."

"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."

"Art is the effort human beings make to impose order on chaos."

"We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by drowning in our thoughts."

"To know yourself is to understand your power."

"The key to a rich life is having more experiences than possessions."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather assessment that something else is more important than fear."

"The writer's responsibility is to excavate the depths of human nature."

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

"We are not obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

"The most authentic thing about us is our shadow."

"You fall in love, and it completely shatters you. That's what it is to love someone."

"Success is not something that can be measured or worn on the outside."

"One must be pitiless about the things one loves."

"The space between who I wish to be and who I am is where my life takes place."

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

"I am always on the side of the writer. We live in the writer's head."

"Time is a construct."

"No one else is like you. You are unique."

"The act of writing itself is transformative."

"Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down and take you backwards."

"We are the choices we make."

"The young can choose to die for love; the older must choose to live for it."

"Understanding takes time, which is the highest form of respect you can show."

"In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."