Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

I've told lots of lies in my life. I try not to lie, but I still do. It's very difficult to get to 37 and not be ashamed of something you've done. But I think your life is easier, ultimately, if you're honest.

Family life is tough, I'll say that for it. But in my case, I've mined the family. In a sense, I've used it. I've used what happened - the different events, the births of children, birthdays. Connecting, not connecting. Regret, shame, guilt. I mean, they're all in the songs. And love, too, I hasten to add.

I broke down on Thursday, Nov. 3, and told Sheriff Howard Wells the truth. It wasn't easy, but after the truth was out, I felt like the world was lifted off my shoulders.

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.

Basically, I think that there are some characters that you can just allow the truth of your character as a human being in your real life to come through.

Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good.

I used to tell people my father was a plumber, because that would mean we had a normal life.

If I hear a lie in my life with my children, with my wife, my work, my audiences, I want to annihilate myself, vaporize myself and wipe myself off the face of the earth.

I've tried to do away with lying in my life in the last few years, but it's hard.

A confession has to be part of your new life.

With marriage and fatherhood, I've finally found two fixed points in my life. They've taught me patience. They've also taught me that I don't need to feel guilty about being happy. My emotional seasons are less extreme.

The Sting of a reproach, is the Truth of it.

I'll never speak to another person without telling the truth. I've been a cruel man in my time, I've been a devious man in my time, like everybody else. I've told lies in my time. But I've seen enough suffering to experiment with the truth.

What's the point of a song if you can't be honest?

You know the expression, 'You're only as sick as your secrets?' I believe that, and I think I try to have my work live by that to a degree.

When you fail to tell the truth, you are kept bound to the past in ways that devastate your soul.

I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

I'm interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is - in my mind - talking about the idea that you're watching a movie. You're sitting here watching a movie. And I like that. It appeals to me intellectually, and also in a way I can't even explain.

I don't hold any regrets whatsoever about my life besides hurting people I loved.

I have made mistakes, but I feel that the people who have done things to me - they should be ashamed.

It's a complicated thing, knowing how much pain my father caused in my life and the lives of others whom I love, yet still holding love for him in my heart. No matter what he did, he was my father. He helped create the person I am.

As a writer, I am an intellectual. I believe in the ideals of the Enlightenment, I believe in the written word, in dialogue and in truth. I hate lies more than anything else. Most of the time I react by writing.

I hated Chris, my brother. I would pull his hair and kick him, until one day my father gave him permission to fight back. I'll be apologizing to him for the rest of my life.

Everything I've written has been personal and touched on things that I needed to deal with in my personal life. So I just feel that writing is great therapy, and the best writing comes from truth, and so I mine my life constantly for that.