“[M]erely to write fiction is an optimistic gesture: pessimists don’t write novels. To write is to make a plea for some sort of human sympathy and communication. To write is to risk being rejected, ridiculed, misunderstood. To write is to make contact between the world out there and the world in here, both of them mysterious, perhaps ultimately unknowable.”
–Joyce Carol Oates from a 2003 interview with Stig Bjorkman
From the Mixed Up Bloggings of Annie Em 
Great quote.
Annie, when are you going to write your novel so I can interview you and then put your great quote on my blog? Just wondering if we have a timeline for that…
Ink, darling, you already have more great quotes on your blog than I can ever hope to create;-)
Oates has been writing since the 1960s: she’s truly unique. Alas, not Nobel for her this year (and the timing would have been so lovely for “me”–and yes, it’s all about me;-)…..maybe next year;-)
Aw, Annie Em, that’s nice. But untrue. My blog is a sad mishmash of random whatnot and I am constantly thinking I should just take it down out of sheer embarrassment. 😉 Your blog, on the other hand, is a gem.
I already want to read your Oates study. Is it a book? When it’s published, will you tell me your real name so I can buy it? Or at least narrow the field and give me the title of three different Oates studies and tell me it’s one of those?
Noooooo, Inktopia will last through the ages! Don’t even think it!
The Oates piece is just an essay that will be published in a book next year sometime…but sure, I’ll tell you my real identity via email anytime;-)
But you know, at least one person who asked me via email never replied back or commented here again, so I’m a little gun shy—what was with that, do you think? They thought I was someone Cooler? Famous? Useful?
LOL! No, I don’t think they judged you. Probably just got shy once they knew your secret identity (maybe because then they’d have to share theirs?).
When the book comes out, I must know so that I can read it. Kay?
Deal!:-)