Most people think that a widow is inhabiting some elegiac world of - it's like Mozart's 'Requiem Mass.' You know, it's very beautiful and elevated thoughts and some measure of dignity. I didn't have that experience at all. I had one pratfall after another.

I should say, one of the things about being a widow or a widower, you really, really need a sense of humor, because everything's going to fall apart.

The - the sort of thing that I want to do is to strike a resonant chord of universality in other people, which is best done by fiction.

Joyce Carol Oates Quotes