I think people make certain assumptions about what they’re interested in reading or what others would be interested in reading, and when they think of poor black people in the South, they don’t think people are interested in reading about those people. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
I dabbled in writing, wrote really bad poetry in high school. I also took a few writing classes when I was an undergrad at Stanford. I was so intimidated. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
There’s so much I love about home, but then there’s a lot that I can acknowledge that I dislike about home. And acknowledging that to myself helps me see that place more clearly and to bring readers to that place. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
I love where I’m from. I love the landscape because it is so beautiful, and I also love the people of my community, the people whose stories I’m trying to tell. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
As I Lay Dying,’ I reread that often. That’s the first work of Faulkner’s that I read that so amazed me and that I responded to emotionally and viscerally. I admired it so much, and I think that’s why I keep rereading it. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
I do think that people will claim a certain fatigue about talking about race. But I think that even though they do, it’s still necessary – completely necessary. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
People are not afraid to be activists, to be vocal. And I think back to my years in college, and that wasn’t the case. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
I would encounter W. E. B. Du Bois and the term double consciousness. When I read it, I thought about sitting in my mother’s employer’s family room, watching my mother clean while I waited for her to finish so we could go home. Jesmyn Ward Read Quote
