Joyce Carol Oates Quote

Art is a means of memorialization of the past, a record of a rapidly vanishing world; a means of exorcising, at least temporarily, the ravages of homesickness. To speak of 'what is past, or passing or to come'-in the most meticulous language thereby to assure its permanence; to honor those we've loved and learned from and must outlive.

Where I've Been, and where I'm Going: Essays, Reviews, and Prose (ed. Plume Books, 1999)