Oscar Wao’ for example cohered in a period of terrible distress. All the novels that I wanted to write were not happening. Junot Diaz Read Quote
You never forget the discovery years. First kisses. The first time you try certain foods. Junot Diaz Read Quote
Books don’t live and die by awards. You don’t listen to an Hector Lavoe album because it won some awards. Junot Diaz Read Quote
We get these lives for free. I didn’t do anything to get this life, and no matter what the hardships are, it is free and, in a way, it’s an extraordinary bargain. Junot Diaz Read Quote
When I became my masked identity I was this incredible little nerd, but in the real world I had to be this tough kid from the neighborhood. Junot Diaz Read Quote
The Caribbean is such an apocalyptic place, whether it’s the decimation of the indigenous populations by the Europeans, whether it’s the importation of slaves and their subsequent being worked to death by the millions in many ways, whether it’s the immigrant processes which began for many people, new worlds ending their old ones. Junot Diaz Read Quote
People are always fascinated by infidelity because, in the end – whether we’ve had direct experience or not – there’s part of you that knows there’s absolutely no more piercing betrayal. People are undone by it. Junot Diaz Read Quote
Migration gives a blank cheque to put anything you don’t feel like addressing in the memory hold. No neighbours can go against the monster narrative of your family. Junot Diaz Read Quote
I love ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.’ That was like the only black book we read in high school. Junot Diaz Read Quote
My father was a Little League dictator. That really affected me, his control-freakery, his impunity, his arbitrary unreasonable power. Junot Diaz Read Quote
