61 Junot Diaz Quotes for You to Enjoy

Junot Diaz

American Writer

Born: Dec 31, 1968

Me People Think Work Writing You

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

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. Junot Diaz

Hope Book Made First Past Sense Nothing Damn Mark Kind Would Fine Pretty Had Wrote Been Any Stories After Which Page Pages Cool Novel Publishing Started

I sleep way too much and I read tremendously. Junot Diaz

Too Much Too Tremendously Way Read Much Sleep

I write incredibly slowly. And, on top of that, I spent my entire youth and twenties working like a dog, so one of the things that happened when I finished 'Drown' was that I got busy living. I'd never travelled, I'd never seen anything. So I did as much travelling as my job teaching would allow. Junot Diaz

Youth Dog Job Seen Finished Busy Living Incredibly Top Spent One Of The Things Would Slowly Entire Write Allow Never Drown Like Got Did Anything Happened Much Working Teaching Twenties Travelled Travelling Things

I can always tell if someone's from Harvard because they trot out their vitae. I would die at Harvard. Junot Diaz

Harvard Out Tell Would Someone Because Always Die

New Jersey for me is so alive with history. It's old, dynamic, African-American, Latino. Junot Diaz

Me History Old Alive Latino New New Jersey African-American Dynamic Jersey

I write for the people I grew up with. I took extreme pains for my book to not be a native informant. Not: 'This is Dominican food. This is a Spanish word.' I trust my readers, even non-Spanish ones. Junot Diaz

Food Trust Book People Word Took Extreme Write For The People Readers Up Native Grew Spanish Pains Even

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

Family You Memory Monster Addressing Neighbours Gives Blank Put Feel Like Narrative Cheque Go Hold Anything Against Migration Your

Being an author is always like being a well-run dictatorship - it's all one person speaking. Junot Diaz

Dictatorship Like Always Author Person Being Speaking

I don't think I could have tackled 'The Pura Principle' until now. It takes me about twenty years to come to term with any difficult period in my life, to get enough of a grasp on it to fictionalize it. Junot Diaz

In fact, looking at the darkest sides of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a remarkable place. Junot Diaz

Like most lit nerds, I'm a voracious reader. I never got enough poetry under my belt growing up but I do read it - some of my favorites, Gina Franco and Angela Shaw and Cornelius Eady and Kevin Young, remind me daily that unless the words sing and dance, what's the use of putting them down on paper. Junot Diaz

Daily Me Words Dance Young Down Enough Unless Paper Favorites Nerds Some Angela Poetry Never Remind Putting Voracious Like Most Sing Read Reader Got Up Lit Them Use Growing Growing Up Belt Kevin

One of the many characteristics of the new is that, at first, it's very hard to recognize it for what it is. We're lucky if we recognize something as being new when it first appears. Usually I think we don't have that privilege. It's usually after the fact that we suddenly turn around and say, 'Wow, this thing is amazing.' Junot Diaz

A young person, or someone who's writing in a different way - in some ways you could say, eventually someone will find them. Eventually someone will hear them. But it's good a lot of young people persevere. Because sometimes you have to send something out a thousand times before anyone recognizes your value. Junot Diaz

Good You People Writing Sometimes Will Value Before Young Way Say Ways Out Thousand Thousand Times Find Some Someone Something Could Because Hear Lot Persevere Times Person Send Different Anyone Young People Young Person Them Your Different Way Eventually

I'm an immigrant and I will stay an immigrant forever. Junot Diaz

Will Immigrant Stay Forever

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

Life Matter Hardships Free Extraordinary Way Get Anything Bargain Lives

New Jersey is to New York what Santo Domingo is to the United States. I always felt that those two landscapes, not only just the landscapes themselves but their relationships to what we would call 'a center' or 'the center of the universe,' has in some ways defined my artistic and critical vision. Junot Diaz

Vision Universe Relationships Defined States Ways Those Critical Would Some Only New Call Felt Always New Jersey York Artistic Just New York Center Themselves Landscapes United Jersey United States Two

Every single immigrant we have, undocumented or documented, is a future American. That's just the truth of it. Junot Diaz

Truth Future Single Every Immigrant Documented Undocumented American Just

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. Junot Diaz

I know for a fact that - it's just the way our biases work now in the industry of literature, but certainly a short story collection does not receive the same kind of attention as a novel. 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. Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz Quotes

No more Junot Diaz quotes