A Quote by Joyce Carol Oates

Most people who are writers go through periods when they can't write.

Joyce Carol Oates

Quote Topics

Go Most People Periods Through Write Writers

Quote Author

Joyce Carol Oates
American - Writer
Born: June 16, 1938

That 'writers write' is meant to be self-evident. People like to say it. I find it is hardly ever true. Writers drink. Writers rant. Writers phone. Writers sleep. I have met very few writers who write at all.

Renata Adler

Like Picasso, I go through blue periods, green periods, or grey periods.

Sonia Rykiel

It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the ones who can write pretty easily.

Alice Mattison

I go through long periods of time when I don't write, and I'm fine.

Ann Patchett

I go through periods of not writing. Until there's something I can't find in the world that I need, so I write.

Daphne Gottlieb

Most writers write to say something about other people - and it doesn't last. Good writers write to find out about themselves - and it lasts forever.

Gloria Steinem

We go through periods of turmoil in our nation's history, and one of the remarkable things about the United States is that we seem to keep making our way through those periods.

Jim Acosta

The most important thing for aspiring writers is for them to give themselves permission to be brave on the page, to write in the presence of fear, to go to those places that you think you can’t write - really that’s exactly what you need to write.

Cheryl Strayed

You were born with the seeds of your talent, the ability to observe the world around you and weave piece of it into a story. I believe that most -- if not all -- people are born with these seeds. What separates the writers from the non-writers is that the writers actually sit down and, you know... write.

Laurie Halse Anderson

I don't know if make a conscious effort to vary the characters and subjects that I write about, but I do find myself keeping track of ideas that come along, as probably most writers do, and whatever seems most interesting to me when I flip through my notes before I begin a new story is usually what I will try to write about next.

Christine Sneed

Civilizations evolve over time, and most scholars of civilization, including people like Carol Quigley, argue that they go through periods of warring states, and eventually evolve into a universal state.

Samuel P. Huntington

I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don't function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I'm even ready to write.

Wole Soyinka

I go through periods where I feel very confident about stuff but other periods that are insecure... I find doing different stuff removes the responsibility of focussing on one thing.

Eoin Macken

There are many people who say, 'I write for myself.' I think that if you write and publish, then you write for your readers, not just for yourself. Many writers say that they write to be loved. I place myself among those writers.

Angeles Mastretta

There are many people who say, I write for myself. I think that if you write and publish, then you write for your readers, not just for yourself. Many writers say that they write to be loved. I place myself among those writers.

Angeles Mastretta

More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.