Joyce Carol Oates

Nothing is accidental in the universe - this is one of my Laws of Physics - except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity.

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.

It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she, or he, is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence.

By pouring money and goods into devastated regions, foreign aid workers sometimes compound the disruption and debauch the survivors.

My feeling for reality TV isn't ironic, guilty, or apologetic. Reality TV is one of the few remaining modes of popular entertainment in which characterization is permitted as plot.

If every time you engage in a sex act, you go into a confession box, you will never accept your own sexuality.