“Once I became historically aware, I realized there are these formative moments of history tied around tragedy and disaster and sacrifice, that led people to survive and take stock and move on with some kind of notion of betterment.” PeopleKindMomentsMovingSacrificeTragedyNotionI RealizedDisasterTiedBetterment Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“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
“People seem very comfortable having a kind of Cheesecake Factory-type of life.” PeopleKindSeemsTypeComfortableFactoriesCheesecake Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“People were always hungry, bullied, afraid, paranoid - so I just thought I'd show that in the novel in a kind of suffocating way.” PeopleWayKindShowsNovelHungryParanoidBulliedSuffocating 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
