Joyce Carol Oates

"Creativity is our highest calling."

"Justice must be blind to all but the truth."

"Patience is a virtue worth cultivating."

"Kindness costs nothing but is worth everything."

"Strength comes from our struggles."

"Fear is an illusion we create ourselves."

"Power without compassion is tyranny."

"Money is a tool, not a destination."

"The possession of objects does not change the possession of truth."

"Writing is a way of discovery."

"We are dying, one and all of us, and I would be foolish to ignore it—but neither can I let it paralyze me."

"The task of the artist is not to resolve life's contradictions, but to bear witness to them."

"I think that writers are made, not born or created out of dreams of childhood trauma—that becoming a writer is a direct result of conscious will."

"Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire."

"People are afraid of their own freedom."

"There is no more beautiful experience than thinking alone."

"One must remember that to embrace one's fate is to surrender to one's deepest nature."

"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."

"We cannot know what we might accomplish until we try."

"Art is a kind of assault on the mysteries of being."

"The greatest thing that any person can do is to give their word and keep it."

"Violence is a form of communication in our culture."

"Every human being needs beauty as much as food or water."

"The most important thing is to keep writing, to exercise the skill."

"We live in catastrophic times, so I think it's appropriate to write about catastrophe."

"Trauma is the secret that bonds people together."

"It is difficult to write about a subject as close as one's own soul."

"The body keeps score of our emotional truths."

"Anxiety is the price of consciousness."

"Every person is both a witness and a participant in history."