Joyce Carol Oates

"The self is a construct we perpetually redesign."

"Every moment is both an ending and a beginning."

"To understand another's pain is to transcend one's own."

"The work of art is a conversation between creator and audience."

"Love is the willingness to be vulnerable."

"Science is truth, but truth is not always scientific."

"The family unit is where we learn our first languages of pain and joy."

"Inspiration is recognizing what has always been there."

"Technology amplifies both our humanity and our inhumanity."

"Leadership is the burden of seeing what others refuse to see."

"Work is how we transform ourselves and the world."

"Dreams are the blueprints of our deepest desires."

"Humor is the survival mechanism of the intelligent."

"The beautiful is often terrible."

"War teaches us what we are capable of becoming."

"Gratitude is the antidote to entitlement."

"Strength is the ability to endure what breaks others."

"Political systems are mirrors of our collective consciousness."

"Hope is not optimism, but the refusal to surrender."

"The educated person is one who can entertain a thought without accepting it."

"Knowledge without compassion becomes a weapon."

"Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice."

"Freedom is the burden of choosing who we become."

"We write to make sense of the senseless."

"The pursuit of happiness is often what prevents happiness."

"Friendship is love without the complications of romance."

"Every person contains multitudes we will never know."

"The artist's task is to bear witness to the sacred and profane."

"To be alive is to participate in tragedy."

"Innovation requires the courage to fail publicly."