Daniel Alarcon Quotes

Quotes about:

• The bond between parent and child is chemical, fierce, and inexplicable, even if that parent is a sworn killer. This connection cannot be measured; it at once more subtle and more powerful than science.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Children, Powerful, Parent

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• It's true that there are people who live the idea of being an artist, as opposed to the idea of making art.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Art, Ideas, People

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• Peru is a country where more than half the people would emigrate if given the chance. Thats half the population that is willing to abandon everything they know for the uncertainty of a life in a foreign land, in another language.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Country, Land, People

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• Ask any human being alive if they're the same person they were seven years ago and they're going to tell you they aren't.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Years, Alive, Seven

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I have to really think hard about how to structure sentences, and do more mapping when I sit down to write, so it does impose a certain discipline, intellectual and linguistic.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Writing, Thinking, Discipline

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• I'm a sucker for any band named after a work of literature. Los de Abajo take their name from Mariano Azuela's famous novel 'The Underdogs,' and that says a lot about who they are and the music they make.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Names, Underdog, Band

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• When I started writing seriously in high school, English was the language I had at my disposal - my Spanish was domestic, colloquial, and not particularly literary or sophisticated.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Writing, School, Language

  "The Exchange: Daniel Alarcón" by Thessaly La Force, www.newyorker.com. May 5, 2009.

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• Radio, or at least the kind of radio we're proposing to do, can cut through that. It can reach people who would otherwise never hear your work, and of course I find that very notion inspiring. Radio stories are powerful because the human voice is powerful. It has been and will continue to be the most basic element of storytelling. As a novelist (and I should note that working my novel is the first thing I do in the morning and the very last thing I do before I sleep), shifting into this new medium is entirely logical. It's still narrative, only with different tools.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Morning, Powerful, Sleep

  Source: therumpus.net

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• For fiction, Im not particularly nationalistic. Im not like the Hugo Chavez of Latin American letters, you know? I want people to read good work.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Latin, People, Fiction

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• As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasnt made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Boys, Cups, Different

  "Daniel Alarcón" by Jennifer L. Knox, www.newyorker.com. June 14 & 21, 2010.

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• I do feel fortunate to have some knowledge of the great Latin American writers, including some that are probably not that well known in English. Im thinking of Jose Maria Arguedas, whom I read when I was living in Lima, and who really impacted the way I viewed my country.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Country, Latin, Thinking

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• Radio is the medium that most closely approximates the experience of reading. As a novelist, I find it very exciting to be able to reach people who might not ever pick up one of my books, either because they can't afford it (as is often the case in Latin America), or because they just don't have the habit of reading novels.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Latin, Book, Reading

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I like radio because you can do an hour-long interview and then three days later have a finished piece.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Long, Three, Pieces

  "'This American Life,' en Español". Interview with Ian Gordon, www.motherjones.com. November/December 2012.

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• I love to walk through the streets of Jesus Maria and Pueblo Libre. The Spanish colonial buildings are in bright colors, two stories high, with these intricate wooden, windowed balconies.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Jesus, Color, Two

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• I think probably the thing I'm worst at is the most ephemeral stuff, like blogs. I find it really hard to write. And I'm often been asked to write columns for papers in Peru. And I can't. I would die. There's no way I could write a column.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Writing, Thinking, Paper

  "'This American Life,' en Espanol". Interview with Ian Gordon, www.motherjones.com. November/December 2012.

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• I'm a believer in the benefits of translation. It's a necessity and a privilege - it would be awful to be limited to reading authors who's work was composed in the languages I happen to have learned.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Reading, Would Be, Benefits

  Source: therumpus.net

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• How emigration is actually lived - well, this depends on many factors: education, economic station, language, where one lands, and what support network is in place at the site of arrival.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Land, Support, Emigration

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• I think I'm an American writer writing about Latin America, and I'm a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Latin, Writing, Thinking

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• I began visiting Lima's prisons back in 2007, when my first novel, 'Lost City Radio,' was published in Peru.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Cities, Radio, Firsts

  "This Week in Fiction: Daniel Alarcón" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. July 21, 2013.

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• Meaning can be usually be approximated, but often by sacrificing style. When I review my translations into Spanish, that's what I'm most concerned with, reading the sentences aloud in Spanish to make sure they sound the way I want them to. To be honest, I much prefer being translated into Greek or Japanese; in those cases, you have no way of being involved, and no pressure.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Reading, Sacrifice, Greek

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The impact of any particular writer on your own work is hard to discern.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Impact, Particular, Hard

  "The Exchange: Daniel Alarcón". Interview with Thessaly La Force, www.newyorker.com. May 5, 2009.

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• At the most basic level, I appreciate writers who have something to say.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Appreciate, Levels

  "Daniel Alarcón" by Jennifer L. Knox, www.newyorker.com. June 14 & 21, 2010.

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• Publication in 'The New Yorker' meant everything, and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Changed, Exaggeration, Publication

  "The Exchange: Daniel Alarcón" by Thessaly La Force, www.newyorker.com. May 5, 2009.

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• I write in English because I was raised in the States and educated in this language.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Writing, Language, States

  "The Exchange: Daniel Alarcón" by Thessaly La Force, www.newyorker.com. May 5, 2009.

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• Eduardo Halfon is a brilliant storyteller, whose gifts are displayed on every page of this beautiful, daring, and deeply humane book.

  Daniel Alarcon

  Beautiful, Book, Pages

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