Junot Diaz quotes - page 5

We all dream dreams of unity, of purity; we all dream that there's an authoritative voice out there that will explain things, including ourselves. (Junot Diaz)
I was in fact pretty much - by the larger culture, by the local culture, by people around me, by people on TV - encouraged to imagine women as something slightly inferior to men. View quote
Junot Diaz
I seem to enjoy telling stories with a central absence, with a lacuna tunnelled into them. View quote
Junot Diaz
My mother took care of us until my father scrammed, and then she ended up working in the small-factory sector of New Jersey with a lot of other immigrants. View quote
Junot Diaz
I act most like myself... when I'm in my hometown, Santo Domingo. I try to get there about five times a year. View quote
Junot Diaz
I feel most like myself... after I run - I go out for five miles every morning. View quote
Junot Diaz
Well, when you look at a lot of science fiction novels they're asking questions about power. There are questions about what it means to have power and what are the long-term consequences of power. View quote
Junot Diaz
I was part of that group of kids growing up in the '80s under the Reagan regime, what I used to call 'living in the shadow of Dr. Manhattan,' where we would have dreams all the time that New York City was being destroyed, and that that wall of light and destruction was rolling out and would just devour our neighborhood. View quote
Junot Diaz
When I was working on 'Drown' - this was way back in the mid-'90s - I had this idea that I wanted to do another collected stories. I wanted to do another book like 'Drown' that focused specifically on infidelity. View quote
Junot Diaz
My novel, which I had started with such hope shortly after publishing my first book of stories, wouldn't budge past the 75-page mark. Nothing I wrote past page 75 made any kind of sense. Nothing. Which would have been fine if the first 75 pages hadn't been pretty damn cool. View quote
Junot Diaz
There is a lot of scepticism today as to whether memoir is real. But when fiction is done at a certain level there is scepticism as to whether it is really fiction. (Junot Diaz)
I love 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.' That was like the only black book we read in high school. View quote
Junot Diaz
I didn't start writing until late high school and then I was just diddling. Mainly I loved to read and my writing was an outgrowth of that. View quote
Junot Diaz
I am a person who dreads any kind of public exposure and any kind of public event. I spend all day, if I have to do a reading, preparing. View quote
Junot Diaz
I can always tell if someone's from Harvard because they trot out their vitae. I would die at Harvard. View quote
Junot Diaz
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. View quote
Junot Diaz
I was, as a kid, really obsessed with reading... that was about as geeky as you could possibly get. View quote
Junot Diaz
Students teach all sorts of things but most importantly they make explicit the courage that it takes to be a learner, the courage it takes to open yourself to the transformative power of real learning and that courage I am exposed to almost every day at MIT and that I'm deeply grateful for. View quote
Junot Diaz
Personally I always feel like I could use a little more of poetry apothegmatic power in my own work but we're always lacking something. View quote
Junot Diaz
I think 90% of my ideas evaporate because I have a terrible memory and because I seem to be committed to not scribble anything down. As soon as I write it down, my mind rejects it. View quote
Junot Diaz
I really am a believer that 99.99% of all the stories we need, not only as artists but as human beings, not only as writers but as readers, haven't been written yet. Certainly haven't been published yet. (Junot Diaz)
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. View quote
Junot Diaz
We have a whole bunch of young people and a whole bunch of families. Are we going to disrupt these families and tear them apart? Or are we going think, like, listen - these people are here. We've got to deal with this reality. We've got to extend the franchise. View quote
Junot Diaz
When I got heartbroken at 20, it just felt like someone had spiraled a football right into my skull. At 40, it feels like someone had driven a 757 right through me. View quote
Junot Diaz
Cities produce love and yet feel none. A strange thing when you think about it, but perhaps fitting. Cities need that love more than most of us care to imagine. Cities, after all, for all their massiveness, all their there-ness, are acutely vulnerable. View quote
Junot Diaz