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Joyce Carol Oates Quotes about Character

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Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Should Have, Stories

My nature is orderly and observant and scrupulous and deeply introverted.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Introverted, Observant
Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Milazzo (1989). “Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates”, p.68, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Personality, True Life
"A Reader’s Guide to the Recent Novels of Joyce Carol Oates". Interview, celestialtimepiece.com.

There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.

Joyce Carol Oates
Art, Character, May
"Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates". The WashingtonPost Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. October 24, 2003.

I rarely write in my own voice except in book reviews and memoirs; otherwise, I am writing in mediated voices, modulated in terms of the characters whom the voices express.

Joyce Carol Oates
Book, Writing, Character
"Writing Lessons From the Madly Prolific Joyce Carol Oates". Interview with Alexander Sammon, www.motherjones.com. September 10, 2016.

We are all regionalists in our origins, however 'universal' our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root - almost literally.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Roots, Childhood

If Shakespeare's great plays are variants of stories, even novels, you can see how each character is telling his story from his perspective; each is vying with the others for dominance, but in the end, in tragedy, most of these voices will die, to be replaced by the yet more vigorous voice of a younger generation.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Play, Voice
"Writing Lessons From the Madly Prolific Joyce Carol Oates". Interview with Alexander Sammon, www.motherjones.com. September 10, 2016.

To choose the ideal voice for a character is to give a character an ardent and vivid life, to allow him or her to speak, rather than speaking for them, in an older style of omniscient narration.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Voice, Giving
"Writing Lessons From the Madly Prolific Joyce Carol Oates". Interview with Alexander Sammon, www.motherjones.com. September 10, 2016.

Though I am never exactly "blocked" I do have difficult periods. I am led by a fascination with material - the challenge of presenting it in an original and engaging way. I have no problem imagining stories, characters, distinctive settings & themes - but the difficulty is choosing a voice & a language in which to present it.

Joyce Carol Oates
Character, Voice, Challenges
"A Portrait of the Writer". Interview with Mia Funk, tinhouse.com. February 10, 2015.

Characters begin as voices, then gain presence by being viewed in others' eyes. Characters define one another in dramatic contexts. It is often very exciting, when characters meet - out of their encounters, unanticipated stories can spring.

Joyce Carol Oates
Spring, Character, Eye
"A Portrait of the Writer". Interview with Mia Funk, tinhouse.com. February 10, 2015.

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