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.

To be true to life, a novel must have an ending that is inevitable given the specific personalities of the characters involved. The novelist must not impose an ending upon them.

I am not conscious of working especially hard, or of 'working' at all. Writing and teaching have always been, for me, so richly rewarding that I don't think of them as work in the usual sense of the word.

Joyce Carol Oates Quotes