Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

There is a lot of my childhood in 'The Sandcastle Girls.'

My father's violence is the central fact of my art and my life.

When I watch 'Glee', it reminds me of my upbringing.

I grew up in Cazenovia, N.Y. I'm the second of five children, with three sisters and a brother.

I alone, as the sharer of their way of life, presented a replica of childhood.

It is no accident that I made Cartoon Town a simple little village - in many ways it mirrored my home town. And, yes, many of my puppet characters took on some of the more eccentric characteristics of people I knew there.

I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was. I was much more terrified by my own family and real life, you know?

'Felicity' was my 'Gilmore Girls' because I grew up in a small town.

I remember, as a child, loving it when my mom laughed, but I was definitely not a class clown.

'House' was such a special part of my life.

I was an only child and grew up in York where my parents ran a surgical supplies shop. When I say I wish I had brothers and sisters, friends say it's not what it's cracked up to be, but I think it must be good to have someone who knew you from the beginning.

I lived in upstate New York until I was ten years old and we moved overseas. I have a lot of nostalgic memories of that part of the world, and I love going back there by writing the Lakeshore books.

Learning of my father's passing at age 55 not only shattered the world, far from home, that had become my reality, but catapulted my childhood and relationship with family - which had felt like another lifetime - into the present.

If you make a film about childhood, you've got to pick a moment - you know, 'The 400 Blows.'

Growing up, I didn't just watch 'The Cosby Show.' I watched 'Growing Pains' and 'Family Ties,' too.

A sibling is the lens through which you see your childhood.

I have two kids now and through watching them, I keep having flashbacks to my own childhood.

My mom and dad got divorced when I was, like, 8, and when I went to my dad's house on the weekend, he'd play a lot of music: Miles Davis, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Elton John.

I grew up eating chicken and dumplings in my grandma's kitchen.

My maternal grandmother, Annie Sparks, lived with our family during the while I was growing up. When I came home from school, after having made a detour to the kitchen to pour a glass of milk and fix a thick peanut butter sandwich on easy-to-tear white bread, I would go up to her sitting room.

When I was 9, I saw 'Star Wars,' and it set me on a path to where I am today.

My earliest memories have to do with music.

I lived in L.A. for a year when I was four - my dad was doing a sabbatical at UCLA - so it always remained quite a familiar place.

Bread and football - that's how I grew up.

My first bat was a Duncan Fearnley 405, size two. I was aged about four. I loved that bat, such great memories. I gave it to a family member and never saw it again.