Boxing is about being hit rather more than it is about hitting, just as it is about feeling pain, if not devastating psychological paralysis, more than it is about winning.

JOYCE CAROL OATES, On Boxing

Is Time outside me, I started wondering in high school. When things began to go fast. Or is Time inside me. If OUTSIDE you have to keep pace with f***ing clocks & calendars. No slacking off. If INSIDE, you do what you want. Whatever. You create your own Time. Like breaking the hands off a clock like I did once so it's just the clock face there looking at you.

JOYCE CAROL OATES, Zombie

There is no PAST anybody can get to, to alter things or even to know what those things were but there is definitely a future, we are already in it.

JOYCE CAROL OATES, Zombie