Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

I learned early on not to listen to either critique - the people who love you or the people who don't like you.

Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.

The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.

In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

I love disagreements. I love the democratic process. If I'm in a room where everybody agrees, I start to nod off.

I'd much rather have 15 people arguing about something than 15 people splitting into two camps, each side convinced it's right and not talking to the other.

It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something much more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe, in some small, but mattering way, how to live.

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to teach it every day.

What fascinated me mostly about Mickey Cohen was that he, in his later years, hired someone to help him to comprehend literature, to help him to read better, to understand words better.

If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn.

If the material is challenging, it forces you to challenge yourself when handling it.

As the loyal opposition we can be loyal and still generate a lot of opposition.

People go to school and get educated, but most people who go to school and become a graduate in eduation still don't know what the word 'education' means... 'Educo' means to bring out.

If you disagree with me about a position I have taken, or what I've done, tell me, argue with me, debate. Sometimes, right and good are not that clear; at other times, it is only deliberate and respectful debate that leads us to understand what road we should take.

It can be more productive to help people learn to be 'right' than prove they were 'wrong.'

I like reading things where someone's looked at what I do with some honesty, and maybe been challenged by it, and they have something to say that shows they've thought about it, even if they don't necessarily like it.

I like learning new stuff, also, and I can sit there and watch shows on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel or stuff like that and learn something new. I think once you've gone through such a long stage of learning one thing, you're not as well-rounded as you'd like to be.

To learn and think; to think and live; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new understanding, and new love.

When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.

What is education but a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn?

One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.

You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.

I think that it's important for people to read philosophy and literature is not because I think everyone should be a well-rounded human being, but because it will help you think better about what you are doing.

The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The best manual we have. The most useful guide to the country we're visiting, life.