A Book of American Martyrs Quotes

“Life is the horror, abortion or miscarriage is the redemption. As Sophocles said so beautifully, ‘Never to have been born is best, but once you’ve entered this world, return as quickly as possible to the place you came from.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“A man is fearful of lonely in a woman”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“I wasn’t so special, honey. Except that I was your dad, I wasn’t so special.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“The fetus wished to live. Stubbornly, sometimes astonishingly-the fetus struggled to live. But the power of its life-or its death-had to reside with the mother. No other alternative was possible.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“La vida es una cuestión de giros. O al menos así es como los llamo yo. Un giro es una sorpresa. Como si te agarrasen de los hombros por detrás y te obligaran por la fuerza a girar, a volverte”
― Joyce Carol Oates, Un libro de mártires americanos

“It is not anything to be ashamed of. That is my opinion. Edna Mae and Luther felt differently of course. To them, it would be like murder. But I think if the mother is married, and there is a father—and the doctor suggests it—it is nothing like abortion which is plain murder and should be outlawed.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“Life is the horror, abortion or miscarriage is the redemption. As Sophocles said so beautifully, ‘Never to have been born is best, but once you’ve entered this world, return”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“And that smell of masculine indignation, rage like something singed.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“That is a blessing of bad dreams, they are quickly forgotten.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“the terrible intimacy of pregnancy,”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“Alone, alone! Long she would recall the strangeness of the word, an echo aerated by melancholy vowels—alone. AT”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“A woman who has lost her husband is invalid, thus an invalid. In”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

“The murderer is not protected! He is vulnerable. TO”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs