Home / Authors / Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

Novelist

Jamaica Kincaid is a celebrated novelist known for her distinctive style and poignant storytelling. Born on May 25, 1949, she has made significant contributions to the literary world with her works that often explore themes of identity, colonialism, and the complexities of the human experience.

Filter quotes by topic

All Writing People Thinking Ifs Way Knows World Black Persons Want Garden Mother Race Book Angry Ideas Sometimes Fiction Firsts Lines

Famous Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

“if I'd thought that nobody would like it as I was writing it, I would have written it even more. But I never think of the audience. I never think of people reading. I never think of people, period.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Reading Audience Written Periods

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.”

Thinking Way Writing Hard Problem Difficulty Happy Endings Reviewers

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“That is how I came to think that heavy and hard was the beginning of living, real living; and though I might not end up with a mark on my cheek, I had no doubt that I would end up with a mark somewhere.”

Thinking Real Ends Hard Might Doubt Mark Heavy No Doubt Cheeks

Book:Lucy: A Novel

Source: Lucy: A Novel

“I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in the pursuit of positivity. I am interested in pursuing a truth, and the truth often seems to be not happiness but its opposite.”

Thinking Seems Life Is Difficult Opposites Positivity Pursuit Not Interested Pursuit Of Happiness Life Is Difficult

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You cry when you're born because your lungs expand. You breathe. I think that's really kind of significant. You come into the world crying, and it's a sign that you're alive.”

Thinking World Kind Born Alive Cry Breathe Significant Pursue Unhappiness Lungs

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“You know how they say a man's house is his castle? I think for a woman, it's her body. I feel so strongly about a woman's right to choose. This is my Zionism. It's not a "right" any more than it's a right to breathe, to take in oxygen.”

Thinking Knows Men Feels Body House Know How Breathe Oxygen Castles Zionism

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I think a woman is powerless if she cannot freely claim the right to her reproductive capacity. Society can talk about anything it likes, except a woman's reproductive existence.”

Ifs Thinking Existence Capacity Claims Likes Powerless

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“Everything I do is because of writing. If I go for a walk, it's because I'm thinking of writing. I go look at flowers, I go look at the garden, I go look at a museum, but it's all coming back to writing.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Looks Walks Flower Garden Museums Coming Back

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I don't really do anything that isn't about writing, and I don't really know who I am if I'm not thinking about writing.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Who I Am

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“People think if you describe someone with glistening brown skin you're writing about race, as if the whole of the African diaspora is in someone's brown skin.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Whole Race Skins Brown Diaspora Brown Skin

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“It's not that I'm a very good person. It's that I think I should at least look at the ways in which I am not a good person, the ways in which I so readily become the person who would not notice that the wonderful clothing I'm wearing someone is probably dying for.”

Thinking Way Should Looks Persons Wonderful Dying Very Good Clothings Good Person

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“None of us seem to think that we should draw a line under what would be a satisfactory amount of wealth.”

Thinking Should Seems Would Be Lines Wealth Amount Draws

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I was just looking at moving to Cambridge, and a house I was looking at cost a million dollars. Because somehow, that's what a house costs. And I was thinking, "How can it be?" And I was thinking, "What am I doing? Am I going to be Niall Ferguson, that horrible man?”

Thinking Men Moving House Millions Cost Dollars Horrible Million Dollars Cambridge Ferguson

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I like to be depressing. I feel it's my duty to make everyone a little less happy. You know that line in the Declaration of Independence, "the pursuit of happiness"? I've come to think that it has no meaning at all. You cannot pursue happiness. And to think that this bad little sentence has determined our lives.”

Thinking Duty Independence Determined Depressing Declaration Pursuit Of Happiness Declaration Of Independence

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“The African-American is often used, and has conspired with the rest of America to be used, as a diversion from America's problems. I wish African-Americans would stop contributing to this sideshow. I also wish all African-Americans would cease to sing and dance just for a generation. I think we provide too much entertainment.”

Thinking Problem Wish

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“Something settiled inside me, something heavy and hard. It stayed there, and i could not think of one thing to make it go away. I thought, So this must be living, this must be the beginning of the time people later refer to as 'years ago, when I was young'.”

People Thinking Years Hard Young One Thing Years Ago Heavy Going Away

Book:Lucy: A Novel

Source: Lucy: A Novel

“When I'm writing, I think about the garden, and when I'm in the garden I think about writing. I do a lot of writing by putting something in the ground.”

Thinking Writing Garden

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I didn't think of myself as an outsider because of my race because... where I grew up I was the same race as almost everyone else... It is true that I noticed things that no one else seemed to notice. And I think only people who are outsiders do this.”

People Thinking Race Grew Grew Up Outsiders

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“He must have smiled at me, though I don't really know, but I don't like to think that I would love someone who hadn't first smiled at me.”

Thinking Knows Firsts Love Someone Cool Love

Book:The Autobiography of My Mother: A Novel

Source: The Autobiography of My Mother: A Novel

“All of these declarations of what writing ought to be, which I had myself-though, thank God I had never committed them to paper-I think are nonsense. You write what you write, and then either it holds up or it doesn't hold up. There are no rules or particular sensibilities. I don't believe in that at all anymore.”

Thinking Writing Believe Particular Ought Paper Don't Believe Committed Nonsense Thank God Sensibility Declaration

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes.”

Thinking Ought Cooking Dishes

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

About the Author

Born: May 25, 1949
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 182

Related Topics

Writing People Thinking Ifs Way Knows World Black Persons Want Garden Mother Race Book Angry Ideas Sometimes Fiction Firsts Lines

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Lucy: A NovelRelated source material

A Small PlaceRelated source material

The Autobiography of My Mother: A NovelRelated source material

My BrotherRelated source material

At the Bottom of the RiverRelated source material

Annie JohnRelated source material

In the Garden: Essays on Nature and GrowingRelated source material

LucyRelated source material

Annie John: A NovelRelated source material

My Garden (Book)Related source material

Similar Authors

George SaundersBrowse related quotes
David SedarisBrowse related quotes
Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Sandra CisnerosBrowse related quotes
Joyce Carol OatesBrowse related quotes
Chuck KlostermanBrowse related quotes
Anne LamottBrowse related quotes
Junot DiazBrowse related quotes
Salman RushdieBrowse related quotes