“I try to be even-handed and fair-minded about my view of history. I don't romanticize one side and demonize the other, though I do think that if you're suffering a lot, especially in the Bob Marley sense, suffering becomes a kind of university out of which you'll learn some hard lessons.” IfsThinkingTryingKindHardSufferingSidesViewsLessonsFairsUniversityBobMarleyHard Lessons Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“If you're just mired in privilege, there's nothing to learn; learning appears to be over.” IfsPrivilege Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“There's an imperative to make sure you distinguish fiction from the fact, because if the fact is doing the work, why did you do fiction? And once you raise the question of why - why do fiction? - then you have to answer it in your text as a kind of enactment of the answer.” IfsKindFactsAnswersFictionRaisesImperatives Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“If you die without agency as a child, but you have agency in your body [in the novel], how is it to be enacted unless it is being reimagined by a writer?” IfsChildrenBodyDiesNovelYour BodyAgency Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“The first hit on the nervous system is the one I'm most interested in, because I think if you hit the reader emotionally, the reader can't guarantee the lessons they would like to learn.” IfsThinkingFirstsReaderLessonsNervousGuaranteesNervous System Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“If you created a place in air where they're breathing and running around in, and then they speak in that fictional milieu, it's perfectly authenticated because the whole world relies on you, who've made it possible.” IfsWorldMadeWholeRunningSpeakAirWhole WorldMade ItBreathingRelyMilieu Author:Fred D'Aguiar
