At 28 years old, seven years out of college, I was so convinced that my voice outed me as a fag that I had stopped speaking to people I didn’t know. Marlon James Read Quote
We’re not big on irony in Jamaica, sarcasm and double-talk. We tend to say things plainly, sometimes to the point of boredom. Marlon James Read Quote
I think the Greeks were the only people ever to nail character. Their heroes are deeply flawed. Marlon James Read Quote
My first novel, ‘John Crow’s Devil,’ freed me up to write about the past, and ‘The Book of Night Women’ freed me up to have a book totally based on voice and being very spontaneous. Marlon James Read Quote
A lot of time, I’d spell things in standard English instead of phonetically because I want people to understand what’s going on. It’s also very lyrical, and the great thing about lyrical prose is even when you’re not totally sure of the words, you can be swayed by the musicality of it. Marlon James Read Quote
Not every gay person recites poetry or has read Keats. You can get readers through anything if the characters are complicated. You can’t dismiss Josey Wales’ quite liberal worldview. Marlon James Read Quote
I’d spent seven years in an all-boys school: 2,000 adolescents in the same khaki uniforms striking hunting poses, stalking lunchrooms, classrooms, changing rooms, looking for boys who didn’t fit in. Marlon James Read Quote
If your depiction of loss doesn’t make the reader feel loss, then you didn’t depict it right. Marlon James Read Quote
Caribbean literature only has to be true to itself. It doesn’t need colonialism or imperialism. It’s always been vibrant. Marlon James Read Quote
