A piece of cloth that is called "linen" has more validity than calling you and me "black" or "negro." "Cotton" has more validity as cotton than yours and my being "black." Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes by Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes From Jamaica Kincaid I'm very aware that we make these decisions toward love or hate every day. I certainly don't have the stamina to live through each day making only the noblest decisions. Jamaica Kincaid staminahatedecision In my writing, I'm often describing a universal situation. A situation in which human beings often choose to violate each other. Sometimes I happen to explore that in terms of the black/white dynamic. Generally, a white person does not like me to say, or does not like to be told, "You know, what you did was incredibly wrong." Jamaica Kincaid blackwhitewriting The resistance to my work, and to my way of writing, has been there from the beginning. The first things I wrote were these short short stories collected in At the Bottom of the River, and at least three of them are one sentence long. They were printed in The New Yorker, over the objections of many of the editors in the fiction department. Jamaica Kincaid editorswritingrivers My writing has always been met with derision or dismissal. Jamaica Kincaid dismissalmetswriting Race as a subject only comes about because of what I look like. If I say something truthfully, people say "Oh, she's so angry." If I write about a married person who lives in Vermont, it becomes "Oh, she's autobiographical." Jamaica Kincaid racewritingpeople It's too easy to say this or that is "race," and that has been a vehicle for an incredible amount of wrong in the world. Jamaica Kincaid incrediblesraceworld I would pretend when I was a child that I was Charlotte Brontë, because I'd read Jane Eyre when I was ten and, although I didn't understand it, I loved the idea that this woman had written a book. I wanted to be her. Jamaica Kincaid bookchildrenideas I'm always telling my students go to law school or become a doctor, do something, and then write. First of all you should have something to write about, and you only have something to write about if you do something. Jamaica Kincaid doctorswritingschool If you just sit there, and you're a writer, you're bound to write crap. A lot of American writing is crap. And a lot of American writers are professionals. Jamaica Kincaid crapifswriting Writing is not a profession. It's a calling. It's almost holy. Jamaica Kincaid holycallingwriting Another thing I like to say to my students is this: "How many Corinthians read Paul's letters?" The answer is none. They couldn't have cared less! There aren't even any Corinthians left, but Paul's letters persist. Paul was not a professional writer. He was called to something, and he sent his letters. That's a good way to look at it. That you might be making something that nobody cares about, but you have to do it. It's not that people should care, but that you should care. Jamaica Kincaid mightpeopleway I would never never read a work of fiction and want to know about the person's life. Jamaica Kincaid personswantfiction Often the lines that define the traditional European arrangement of fiction, non-fiction, history, etc. are not useful. These lines can distort the world we, people who look like me, live in - and by the world, I mean our personal experience of it. Jamaica Kincaid etcmeanpeople If I describe a person's physical appearance in my writing, which I often do, especially in fiction, I never say someone is "black" or "white." I may describe the color of their skin - black eyes, beige skin, blue eyes, dark skin, etc. But I'm not talking about race. Jamaica Kincaid eyedarkwriting "Race." I really can't understand it as anything other than something people say. The people who have said that you and I are both "black" and therefore deserve a certain kind of interaction with the world, they make race. I can't take them seriously. Jamaica Kincaid blackracepeople A psychiatrist once asked me to draw a picture of my family. This is when I was a member of a family of four. I drew the three other people in the family first, bodies and heads. And then, last, I began to draw myself - but gave up. Jamaica Kincaid family-firstpeoplefirsts I've never let the criticism deter me. Jamaica Kincaid criticism Sometimes when someone says something stupid, my friends and I just read the reviews out loud and collapse with laughter at the stupidity of it all. Jamaica Kincaid laughterstupidsometimes I know that the fantastic amount of profit that people want to make on anything is damaging. And that none of us seem able to resist it. Jamaica Kincaid ablewantpeople The thing about writing in America is that writers in America have an arc. You enter writing as a career, you expect to be successful, and really it's the wrong thing. It's not a profession. Jamaica Kincaid careerssuccessfulwriting
