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Quote by Junot Diaz

Work

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

This novel is a rich tapestry of cultural and historical elements, weaving together the story of Oscar Wao, a young man living in New Jersey, with the epic history of his family and the Dominican Republic. more

Author

Junot Diaz
Junot Diaz

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. more

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“For those who pass it without entering, the city is one thing; it is another for those who are trapped by it and never leave. There is the city where you arrive for the first time; and there is another city which you leave never to return. Each deserves a different name; perhaps I have already spoken of Irene under other names; perhaps I have spoken only of Irene.”

“Good teachers don't approach a child of this age with overzealousness or with destructive conscientiousness. They're not drill-masters in the military or floor managers in a production system. They are specialists in opening small packages. They give the string a tug but do it carefully. They don't yet know what's in the box. They don't know if it's breakable.”

“But carbon 13 [the carbon from corn] doesn't lie, and researchers who have compared the isotopes in the flesh or hair of Americans to those in the same tissues of Mexicans report that it is now we in the North who are the true people of corn.... Compared to us, Mexicans today consume a far more varied carbon diet: the animals they eat still eat grass (until recently, Mexicans regarded feeding corn to livestock as a sacrilege); much of their protein comes from legumes; and they still sweeten their beverages with cane sugar. So that's us: processed corn, walking.”