YouSaid · the spoken record

Joyce Carol Oates

lines on the record: 56
first: 2021-02-10
most recent: 2021-02-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And then everything is a consequence of that. And then the ending is the ending, which has been you're moving toward that ending from page 19 or 99 or 199, you're moving toward that inexorable ending. So you have a destination. That is an ideal way of writing. It may not be possible for everybody. Some people like E.L. Doctora, my friend, at doctoral, he said that he never knew how his novels were going to end. He thought it was like a car trip. He was driving along a road. He didn't really know where he was going. But I'm not like that.”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I need to see the ending of the Naval. Need to see it in a kind of cinematic way. Sort of envision it. And then I usually have some words to go with that. I really need a beginning and an end, and I need a title. The title is what brings it all together. It's sort of like a triangular. Shape. So the title will give you a sense of what The totality is the beginning obviously is the precipitating factor of the story should be in first.”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So distraction is our main adversary right now. I think in contemporary America, in the world of the Internet and cell phones, at the moment we have a kind of toxic political situation that's very draining of goodwill. So all these distractions make it difficult to concentrate.”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think we're all very different. Some people have a good deal of energy and excitement in the beginning, and they can stay up all night long and working on a novel, you know, writing a complete short story. I think as we get older, we sort of guard our energy differently. We don't stay up all night working, but parcel it out in a more reasonable way. It does depend upon who the person is. I have writing students who have a good deal of energy, but I have others who have been working on one project for some time, and so they're kind of focusing their energy. But as I said, the great adversary is being interrupted and distracted.”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The fuel that is the sheer pleasure in creativity, which is energy. And the opposite of that, I think, is being interrupted many times in situations professional or familial where one is interrupted and one's energy is drained off in different directions so that we don't have the concentration that we need. That is really the great enemy of creativity.”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's sort of self evident that we Need a good deal of spirit and kind of optimism. I think of it as kind of a positive delusions or illusions about the worth of what we're doing. I was reading biography of Walker Evans, this very distinguished early 20th century photographer. And Walker Evans just makes the point that he would be asked, like, why is he doing this? Who's his audience? And he said that he wasn't thinking of that. He was thinking of the pleasure of the camera and seeing where it led him. And I think that's true of all created effort, that there's a kind of spirit or like a flame. It leads us somewhere to tell the story. It could be an entire novel to paint a painting of something extraordinary that's never been done before. And beyond that is just the”
2021-02-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #497: Joyce Carol Oates — A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Living · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT