Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

I have a love/hate relationship with just about everything, but certainly with America.

I was partly old-fashioned and partly modern.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.

Dramatically, I like darkness, I like conflict - but I don't see the world as defined by them.

Some people put up a peace sign with one hand. Some people put up the middle finger instead. I use two hands and put up both.

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

I think it's one of those funny things - sometimes you're not really friends with somebody until you've gotten into a good fight, and I think that's the situation with Superman and Batman.

I think people have to choose between living with contradictions or painting themselves into a corner. I have a lot of contradictions.

We will never be authentically angry or authentically fair while we are trying to be both at once.

I am a deeply superficial person.

If you love things or ideas or people that contradict each other, you have to be prepared to fight for every square inch of intellectual real estate you occupy.

I think we might well ask: How does one destroy his enemy by becoming like him?

We shouldn’t take sides. We have two bad sides to take a choice between.

The best war is when you can hate both sides.

It is the fact of life that a truth emerges out of a conflict between two wrongs.

I'm definitely interested in exploring human contradictions. Contradictions are what make us human - it's what defines us as human beings. Contradictions are what make characters interesting, and I've been lucky to be presented with characters who have a lot of contradictions.

If you don't have to have a partner, don't take one. If you do need one, look for a partner who can complement your weaknesses with their strengths. If you are at odds, you are never going to get anything done.

Dealing with political things, it's not for me. It makes me crazy. I want to buy, you want to sell. Please make it simple.

Bullfighting is every bit as ghoulish and savage as its critics warn, but it is equally as powerful and moving as its supporters insist. Perhaps the most vexing aspect about it is that neither group is wrong: they are both telling the truth.

We seriously irritate each other and don't want to spend any time together. And yet we have a profound respect for the partnership. We're like a couple of dogs with a rag.

That's been a huge recurring thing in growing up - allowing two things to exist in the same space even though, instinctively, they might not be designated to.

Every team boat will have its disagreements and arguments, but if it doesn't kill us or the boat, it will make us stronger.

Chaos is the enemy of Order but the enemy of Chaos is also the enemy of Order

I am a woman and my business is to hold things together. My business is to tear them apart.