I am a person who dreads any kind of public exposure and any kind of public event. I spend all day, if I have to do a reading, preparing. Junot Diaz daydreadevent Change image and share on social
When I enter that higher-order space that's required to write, I'm a better human. For whatever my writing is, wherever it's ranked, it definitely is the one place that I get to be beautiful. Junot Diaz beautifulenterhigh Change image and share on social
I have a very powerful sense of place, but I have a very powerful sense of being a migrant, so it's both. It seems like I'm always leaving my home. That's part of the formula. I love the Dominican Republic. I go back all the time. I love New Jersey. Go back all the time. Junot Diaz backdominicanformula share on social
It's extraordinary how many people read a book that's new and weird and befriend it. Junot Diaz befriendbookextraordinary Change image and share on social
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.' Junot Diaz amazeappearcharacteristic share on social
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. Junot Diaz abstractioncatchcompose share on social
I'm still trying to figure out how to write about cancer and my family's experience with it. If I had been able to write 'The Pura Principle' back in those days, I'm positive it would have had no humor in it. Which means the story would have been false. Junot Diaz backcancerday share on social
You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Junot Diaz amazeeasilygolden share on social
I'm one of those apocalyptics. From the start of my immigrant days, I've been fascinated by end-of-the-world stories, by outbreak narratives, and always wanted to set a world-ender on Hispaniola. Junot Diaz apocalypticsdayend Change image and share on social
Personally I always feel like I could use a little more of poetry apothegmatic power in my own work but we're always lacking something. Junot Diaz apothegmaticfeellack Change image and share on social