Junot Diaz Quotes

Quotes about:

• But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.

  Junot Diaz

  Running, Years, Way

  Junot Diaz (2008). “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, p.209, Faber & Faber

  67 Copy quote

• The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.

  Junot Diaz

  Art, Culture, Take Your Time

  49 Copy quote

• If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level any reflection of themselves

  Junot Diaz

  Reflection, Monsters, Levels

  28 Copy quote

• Sometimes you just have to try, even if you know it won’t work.

  Junot Diaz

  Inspirational, Change, Work

  Junot Diaz (2009). “Drown”, p.64, Faber & Faber

  35 Copy quote

• If you didn't grow up like I did then you don't know, and if you don't know it's probably better you don't judge.

  Junot Diaz

  Growing Up, Judging, Grows

  "Wildwood" by Junot Díaz, www.newyorker.com. June 11, 2007.

  36 Copy quote

• I was neither black enough for the black kids or Dominican enough for the Dominican kids. I didn't have a safe category.

  Junot Diaz

  Kids, Black, Safe

  "Hispanic Heritage Month: A Story That Can't be Told Without Afro-Latino Roots". Interview with Sandra E. Garcia, www.foxnews.com. October 11, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• You must learn her. You must know the reason why she is silent. You must trace her weakest spots. You must write to her. You must remind her that you are there. You must know how long it takes for her to give up. You must be there to hold her when she is about to. You must love her because many have tried and failed. And she wants to know that she is worthy to be loved, that she is worthy to be kept. And, this is how you keep her.

  Junot Diaz

  Relationship, Giving Up, Writing

  33 Copy quote

• You can't regret the life you didn't lead.

  Junot Diaz

  Regret

  Junot Diaz (2008). “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, p.31, Faber & Faber

  12 Copy quote

• There's nothing more true in being a child of a diaspora, a child of immigrants. We're completely new to our parents. We're not something they can ever understand. And it's not as if we are ever going to be accepted. We're accepted as long as we conform to what we are expected to be, and I'm sure that's not any different for anyone else.

  Junot Diaz

  Children, Long, Parent

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. March 8, 2008.

  43 Copy quote

• The truth is there ain’t no relationship in the world that doesn’t hit turbulence.

  Junot Diaz

  World, Truth Is, Turbulence

  Junot Diaz (2012). “This Is How You Lose Her”, p.14, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• Colleagues are a wonderful thing - but mentors, that's where the real work gets done.

  Junot Diaz

  Real, Mentor, Done

  26 Copy quote

• Art has a way of confronting us, of reminding us, of engaging us, in what it means to be human, and what it means to be human is to be flawed, is to be contradictory, is to be often weak, and yet despite all of these what we would consider drawbacks, that we're also quite beautiful. Spin is the opposite.

  Junot Diaz

  Beautiful, Art, Mean

  "Author Explains Tales Of New Vision, New Life". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. June 10, 2009.

  38 Copy quote

• In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.

  Junot Diaz

  Book, Writing, Order

  31 Copy 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

  Hardship, Matter, Way

  28 Copy quote

• I'm like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good.

  Junot Diaz

  Mistake, Weak

  Junot Diaz (2012). “This Is How You Lose Her”, p.6, Faber & Faber

  16 Copy quote

• I think that America is such an incredibly dynamic place because of immigration. We fundamentally have been a culture that's been put together from the explosions of other cultures. But it's hard for us to see. We have blinded ourselves to the reality of what our country is.

  Junot Diaz

  Country, Reality, Thinking

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. March 8, 2008.

  17 Copy quote

• In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

  Junot Diaz

  Inspirational, Writing, Views

  "Becoming a Writer". www.oprah.com. November, 2009.

  32 Copy quote

• 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

  Mistake, Appreciate, United States

  "Author Junot Diaz Shares Thanksgiving Memories". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep, www.npr.org. November 27, 2008.

  35 Copy 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

  Betrayal, People, Infidelity

  23 Copy quote

• 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.

  Junot Diaz

  Real, Grateful, Mit

  19 Copy quote

• Mine (story) ain't the scariest, the clearest, the most painful, or the most beautiful. It just happens to be the one that's got it's fingers around my throat.

  Junot Diaz

  Beautiful, Stories, Painful

  17 Copy quote

• [Donald] Trump is taking America's dirty laundry to the center stage. Everything he does, the rest of the country already does really well: victimize immigrants, poor people, women.

  Junot Diaz

  Country, Dirty, America

  "Junot Díaz is staying put". Interview with Marcela García, www.bostonglobe.com. April 6, 2016.

  18 Copy quote

• The anti-immigrant logic has basically saturated our world. I'm staying, and I'm fighting.

  Junot Diaz

  Fighting, Our World, Logic

  "Junot Díaz is staying put". Interview with Marcela García, www.bostonglobe.com. April 6, 2016.

  18 Copy quote

• I think the average guy thinks they're pro-woman, just because they think they're a nice guy and someone has told them that they're awesome. But the truth is far from it.

  Junot Diaz

  Nice, Thinking, Average

  21 Copy quote

• I never hear white writers get asked, 'Do you worry about how you represent white people?'

  Junot Diaz

  White, People, Worry

  11 Copy quote

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