Joyce Carol Oates on the Intimate Joy of Reading

Words of wisdom from the American author (and notorious tweeter):

“The written word, obviously, is very inward, and when we’re reading, we’re thinking. It’s a sort of spiritual, meditative activity. When we’re looking at visual objects, I think our eyes are obviously directed outward, so there’s not as much reflective time. And it’s the reflectiveness and the spiritual inwardness about reading that appeals to me.”

Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938) is a prolific American author who has since her first publishing in 1963 written over 40 novels in addition to many volumes of poetry and short fiction. She has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize five times, but never won, which makes her sort of like the Leonardo DiCaprio of excellent American fiction. Maybe Leo is just the Joyce Carol Oates of acting. It’s debatable.

Oates’ works include them, Black Water, and Blonde. She is well-known for her exceptional productivity, writing seven to eight hours per day in longhand. Oates has taught at Princeton since 1978.