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Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz Quotes

Writer

Junot Díaz is a renowned American writer known for his magical realism style and profound social commentary. His works often focus on the lives of Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants in the United States, particularly the roles of women in these communities. Díaz's debut novel, 'Drown,' won the National Book Award, and his second novel, 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,' earned the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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Famous Junot Diaz Quotes

“People can say what they want, but historically, feminism in the Dominican Republic has been extremely strong. I guess the best way of saying it is that no one could have survived what we survived - whether it was first extermination and slavery, then abandonment and erasure, then the series of gunboat two-bit dictatorships, followed by the final apotheosis of dictatorships, the Trujillato. You couldn't survive it without the resistance of this kind of woman.”

“I always think about myself as a writer; that comes out of being a reader first, and I don't think I kind of got to really playing with language in any formal way probably until I was in my mid-twenties.”

Thinking Way Firsts Kind Language Reader Twenties Formal

Author:Junot Diaz

“A first lesson in the fragility of love and the preternatural cowardice of men. And out of this disillusionment and turmoil sprang Beli's first adult oath, one that would follow her into adulthood, to the States and beyond. I will not serve.”

Men Firsts States Lessons Adults Cowardice Adulthood Oath Turmoil Disillusionment Fragility

Author:Junot Diaz

“Sucks to be left out of adolescence, sort of like getting locked in the closet on Venus when the sun appears for the first time in a hundred years.”

Years Firsts Left Sun Hundred First Time Locked Adolescence Closets Venus Left Out

Book:The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“but back then, in those first days, I was so alone that every day was like eating my own heart.”

Firsts Heart My Own Eating

Book:This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

“Do you remember? When the fights seemed to go on and on, and always ended with us in bed, tearing at each other like maybe that could change everything. In a couple of months you'd be seeing somebody else and I would too; she was no darker than you but she washed her panties in the shower and had hair like a sea of little punos and the first time you saw us, you turned around and boarded a bus I knew you didn't have to take. When my girl said, Who was that? I said, Just some girl.”

Firsts Littles Said Remember Girl Fighting Saws Seeing Sea Hair Months Goes On Couple Bed First Time Bus Showers Remember When My Girl Panties

Book:This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

“You never forget the discovery years. First kisses. The first time you try certain foods.”

Trying Years Firsts Certain Forget Kissing Discovery First Time Never Forget First Kiss

Author:Junot Diaz

“For my first three books the setting (or place if you will) has always been a given - N.J. and the Dominican Republic and some N.Y.C. - so from one perspective you could say that the place in my work always comes first.”

Ifs Firsts Book Three Given Perspective Setting Settings Republic Dominican Republic

Author:Junot Diaz

“I think there's something really painful about your identity being entirely composed of ghosts. For me, I didn't want to be this kid whose Dominicanness was something caught utterly in the past, is an abstraction, the thing that I write about. Instead I wanted it to be, first and foremost, a thing that I lived.”

Thinking Want Writing Firsts Kids Wanted Past Identity Caught Painful Ghost Abstraction

Author:Junot Diaz

“John Carter was also one of our first recognizable superhumans and there is little doubt that his extraordinary physical feats inspired Superman's creators. Remember: before Superman could fly or turn back time, he was nothing less than an earthbound crime-fighting John Carter in tights.”

Firsts Littles Remember Turns Fighting Doubt Crime Extraordinary Inspired Creator Carter Feats Tights Turn Back Time

Author:Junot Diaz

“My novel, which I had started with such hope shortly after publishing my first book of stories, wouldn't budge past the 75-page mark. Nothing I wrote past page 75 made any kind of sense. Nothing. Which would have been fine if the first 75 pages hadn't been pretty damn cool.”

Ifs Firsts Kind Has Beens Made Book Stories Past Novel Fine Pages Mark Damn Publishing

Author:Junot Diaz

“One of the many characteristics of the new is that, at first, it's very hard to recognize it for what it is. We're lucky if we recognize something as being new when it first appears. Usually I think we don't have that privilege. It's usually after the fact that we suddenly turn around and say, 'Wow, this thing is amazing.'”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Hard Facts Turns Lucky Privilege Characteristics Wow

Author:Junot Diaz

“You know, I was a kid who had difficulty speaking English when I first immigrated. But in my head, when I read a book, I spoke English perfectly. No one could correct my Spanish. And I think that I retreated to books as a way, you know, to be, like, masterful in a language that was really difficult for me for many years.”

Thinking Knows Way Years Firsts Book Kids Language Difficult Difficulty Spokes

Author:Junot Diaz

About the Author

Born: December 31, 1968
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 301

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Books & Sources

This Is How You Lose HerRelated source material

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoRelated source material

DrownRelated source material

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