“'A Fair Maiden' existed in notes and sketches for perhaps a year. When...” — Joyce Carol Oates Quote

“'A Fair Maiden' existed in notes and sketches for perhaps a year. When I traveled, I would take along with me my folder of notes - 'ideas for stories.' Eventually, I began to write it and wrote it fairly swiftly - in perhaps two months of fairly intense writing and rewriting. Most of my time writing is really re-writing.”

“I am what would be called a 'mainstream feminist,' not a radical feminist.”

“We are stimulated to emotional response, not by works that confirm our sense of the world, but by works that challenge it.”

“Everything changes and, somewhere along the line, I'm changing with it.”

“Since I'm a contrarian, I don't want to go along with what everyone else thinks.”

“I can't selfishly take journeys anymore because I have to take a little boy along with me.”