Jamaica Kincaid quotes - page 2

I like to be in my pajamas all day. Sometimes I don't wash for days because I like to read and sit around. I like to eat in bed. (Jamaica Kincaid)
I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
At the time I was taught to read, it was an Eden-like time of my life. My mother adored me. Everyone adored me. So I associate reading with enormous pleasure. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I suppose you could say I love outlaw American culture. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You cry when you're born because your lungs expand. You breathe. I think that's really kind of significant. You come into the world crying, and it's a sign that you're alive. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I used to want to be a backup singer. Not a lead singer, because I really can't sing. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
When I'm writing, I think about the garden, and when I'm in the garden I think about writing. I do a lot of writing by putting something in the ground. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess. (Jamaica Kincaid)
People only say I'm angry because I'm black and I'm a woman. But all sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
The garden has taught me to live, to appreciate the times when things are fallow and when they're not. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I didn't really understand racism because I grew up in an all-black society, so I didn't see how it was possible not to like me! View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I love planting. I love digging holes, putting plants in, tapping them in. And I love weeding, but I don't like tidying up the garden afterwards. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
When once I got to America I fell in love with hippie culture, and I've always wanted to live in the country and grow organic vegetables. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
It is true that I am a writer, and I was married to a composer, and I have lived in a small village in New England, but my children are not named Heracles and Persephone, and my daughter doesn't disappear underground every six months and emerge in the spring. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
I didn't know it was possible to be successful as a writer, so I wasn't afraid to fail. View quote
Jamaica Kincaid
"Race.” I really can't understand it as anything other than something people say. The people who have said that you and I are both "black” and therefore deserve a certain kind of interaction with the world, they make race. I can't take them seriously. Not beyond the fact that they have the ability to say that you and I are a single race. You know, a piece of cloth that is called "linen” has more validity than calling you and me "black” or "negro.” "Cotton” has more validity as cotton than yours and my being "black.”... View quote
Jamaica Kincaid