I think that distance is good for some people for certain projects. I mean this is sort of a dynamic question. Some projects require more distance than others, some don't require it at all. Sometimes you need it and sometimes you don't. Junot Diaz More Quotes by Junot Diaz More Quotes From Junot Diaz We all dream dreams of unity, of purity; we all dream that there's an authoritative voice out there that will explain things, including ourselves. If it wasn't for our longing for these things, I doubt the novel or the short story would exist in its current form. I'm not going to say much more on the topic. Just remember: In dictatorships, only one person is really allowed to speak. And when I write a book or a story, I too am the only one speaking, no matter how I hide behind my characters. Junot Diaz dream writing book 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. Junot Diaz fragility adults men Each morning, before Jackie started her studies, she wrote on a clean piece of paper: Tarde venientibus ossa. To the latecomers are left the bones. Junot Diaz pieces paper morning What we [writers] do might be done in solitude and with great desperation, but it tends to produce exactly the opposite. It tends to produce community and in many people hope and joy. Junot Diaz community opposites people - Nothing else has any efficacy, I might as well be myself. - But your yourself sucks! - It is, lamentably, all I have. Junot Diaz efficacy wells might Love was a rare thing, easily confused with a million other things, and if anybody knew this to be true it was him. Junot Diaz rare-things being-true confused On the outside, Oscar simply looked tired, no taller, no fatter, only the skin under his eyes, pouched from years of quiet desperation, had changed. Inside, he was in a world of hurt. He saw black flashes before his eyes. He saw himself falling through the air. He knew what he was turning into. He was turning into the worst kind of human on the planet: an old bitter dork. Saw himself at the Game Room, picking through the miniatures for the rest of his life. He didn't want this future but he couldn't see how it could be avoided, couldn't figure his way out of it. Fukú. Junot Diaz tired hurt fall That’s life for you. All the happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away like it’s nothing. If you ask me I don’t think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That’s enough. Junot Diaz enough happiness thinking You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture Junot Diaz falling-in-love girl expression The truth is there ain’t no relationship in the world that doesn’t hit turbulence. Junot Diaz turbulence truth-is world That was the summer when everything we would become was hovering just over our heads. Junot Diaz hovering summer Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own. Junot Diaz dating skins hair You're the only person I've ever met who can stand a bookstore as long as I can. Junot Diaz bookstores mets long When she smiles niggers ask her for her hand in marriage; when I smile folks check their wallets. Junot Diaz i-smile checks hands Clavo saca clavo. Nothing sacas nothing, you reply. No one will ever be like her. Junot Diaz like-her You ask everybody you know: How long does it usually take to get over it? There are many formulas. One year for every year you dated. Two years for every year you dated. It's just a matter of will power: The day you decide it's over, it's over. You never get over it. Junot Diaz love two years You try every trick in the book to keep her. You write her letters. You quote Neruda. You cancel your Facebook. You give her the passwords to all your e-mail accounts. Because you know in your lying cheater’s heart that sometimes a start is all we ever get. Junot Diaz writing book lying And because love, real love, is not so easily shed. Junot Diaz real-love real love-is Ana Iris once asked me if I loved him and I told her about the lights in my old home in the capital, how they flickered and you never knew if they would go out or not. You put down your things and you waited and couldn't do anything really until the lights decided. This, I told her, is how I feel. Junot Diaz irises light home Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over. Junot Diaz two book thinking
