Joyce Carol Oates Quote

One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood.' In a sense the writing will create the mood.... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing-card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring for another five minutes... and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. Or appears to do so.


The Paris Review (1978)


One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood.' In a sense the writing will create the mood.... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've...

One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood.' In a sense the writing will create the mood.... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've...

One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood.' In a sense the writing will create the mood.... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've...

One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood.' In a sense the writing will create the mood.... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've...