Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

'Have You in My Wilderness,' the title track, is about the idea of possessing a person, or saying, 'You're mine; you're in my world now.' I was drawn to that as an idea less from my own experience than from listening to music written by men that was kind of male gaze-y.

Just remember who you belong to, Hannah. I wouldn't want to have to shoot anyone - or strangle you." She leaned over to kiss his shoulder. "Why am I the one to be strangled?" "It's a much more personal death.

It is one thing to own a woman, and it is another to have her within the bonds of an excellent mastery.

I'm not here for your amusement. You're here for mine.

With women, I've got a long bamboo pole with a leather loop on the end. I slip the loop around their necks so they can't get away or come too close. Like catching snakes.

To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile.

Everybody is owned by somebody.

To model an object is to possess it.

Do as you like with me. I'm your parcel. I have only our address on me. Open me, or readdress me.

Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me.
 Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could.

Who owns a man, Durnik?” the blond young man asked sadly. “The one who rules him, or the one who pays him?

I'm here because she's here, and she belongs to me. ~Rephaim

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

In 'Fifty Shades,' seemingly, Christian has all the power and control - but actually, Anastasia does.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

The concept of power we admire is power over someone else.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

Nobody will admit to playing power games in relationships, but they do.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

You carry forever the fingerprint that comes from being under someone's thumb.

Those who make some other person their job... are dangerous.

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.