Joyce Carol Oates Interview (page: 5 / 9) National Book Award	Print Interview

What would you say your process is? What steps go from the idea to the finished product?

Joyce Carol Oates: The steps from an idea, which is very inchoate, to a finished product are really incalculable, and it can involve years. To write a novel, so many elements come together. It's like tributaries making their way into a river. You see the river, and it looks like it's a coherent whole but, in fact, it's made up of numberless -- perhaps thousands -- of small tributaries. And it's hard even to talk about this phenomenon. It's a sort of rushing current.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Vision

If I had an idea, the idea would not be sufficient. It has to be bolstered by something from the unconscious, some kind of sympathy or connection, some sense of drama that's like a spark of identification. I wanted to write a novel, for instance, about a man who had been falsely accused of a crime and maybe went to prison. And his own children exonerated him, and they set out to redeem him. And that must have been an idea that was in my mind for years. But as I'm working on the novel now, and it's so different. I remember the genesis, and I couldn't be writing it without that genesis. But it's completely different now. And I don't understand these mysterious processes.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Vision

What was the most exciting moment in your career?

Joyce Carol Oates: Maybe it lies ahead. I'm not sure. My life is a very interior and solitary life. I tend not to care that much about external things. I'm really very happy when my husband and I go running. When I'm in nature, I feel that peace. I'm a very active person. My metabolism seems normal when I'm running, not when I'm sitting. So, my happiest moments in life are likely to be in private or with my husband in nature.

What drew you towards teaching?

Joyce Carol Oates: I always wanted to be a teacher. I admired my teachers in elementary school. I thought it would be a good life, and my parents were very supportive. I got my BA degree from Syracuse University, where I had wonderful teachers. Then I went to the University of Wisconsin to get a Master's degree. I wasn't so interested in the teaching there or so impressed by it. It was much more scholarly and erudite and somewhat dry. But I got my Master's degree in one year, and I didn't do any teaching. I had a fellowship, and I got a job to teach at college level. I had four courses at the University of Detroit. I had never taught before and was amazed that I had been hired to teach four courses without having taught before. That was very nice of these people to hire me.

I came into the classroom, and there were about 40 students. It was a night class. And I had been very excited and really frightened because I had never taught before. And I remember walking in the room, and I came to the podium and I looked out and some of these students were older than I was - I was only about 22. Such a feeling of happiness came over me. I thought, "This is where I belong." Then I started teaching, and I just loved it.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Passion

I can't imagine where I got that confidence. If I had been very nervous, I would have been quite comprehensible. What seems surprising to me was that I wasn't really nervous, and that I loved it. And I felt so happy. So I always feel very happy teaching. A wave of happiness comes over me in the classroom.

Joyce Carol Oates Interview, Page: 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9