I think that most of us are aware that as writers we are seeking absences, we're seeking silences, we're seeking spaces that people haven't entered. No writer is saying, "Hey, I want to go to this very well trod territory and say exactly what someone else has done." I think the nature of a writer, because we are attempting to bring to light areas that people haven't seen before, tends in some ways to be progressive, at least in that light.

Junot Diaz

Categorized in : Thinking People Silence

But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.

running way years

The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.

take-your-time culture art

You must learn her. You must know the reason why she is silent. You must trace her weakest spots. You must write to her. You must remind her that you are there. You must know how long it takes for her to give up. You must be there to hold her when she is about to. You must love her because many have tried and failed. And she wants to know that she is worthy to be loved, that she is worthy to be kept. And, this is how you keep her.

giving-up writing relationship

If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level any reflection of themselves

levels reflection monsters

There's nothing more true in being a child of a diaspora, a child of immigrants. We're completely new to our parents. We're not something they can ever understand. And it's not as if we are ever going to be accepted. We're accepted as long as we conform to what we are expected to be, and I'm sure that's not any different for anyone else.

parent long children

Art has a way of confronting us, of reminding us, of engaging us, in what it means to be human, and what it means to be human is to be flawed, is to be contradictory, is to be often weak, and yet despite all of these what we would consider drawbacks, that we're also quite beautiful. Spin is the opposite.

beautiful mean art

She smelled like herself, like the wind through a tree. by Junot Diaz

She smelled like herself, like the wind through a tree.

tree wind

Sometimes you just have to try, even if you know it won’t work. by Junot Diaz

Sometimes you just have to try, even if you know it won’t work.

change work inspirational

If you didn't grow up like I did then you don't know, and if you don't know it's probably better you don't judge.

growing-up grows judging

In fact, looking at the darkest sides of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a remarkable place.

united-states appreciate mistake

We get these lives for free. I didn't do anything to get this life, and no matter what the hardships are, it is free and, in a way, it's an extraordinary bargain.

hardship matter way

Colleagues are a wonderful thing - but mentors, that's where the... by Junot Diaz

Colleagues are a wonderful thing - but mentors, that's where the real work gets done.

mentor done real

I think that America is such an incredibly dynamic place because of immigration. We fundamentally have been a culture that's been put together from the explosions of other cultures. But it's hard for us to see. We have blinded ourselves to the reality of what our country is.

country reality thinking

In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.

writing order book

Mine (story) ain't the scariest, the clearest, the most painful, or the most beautiful. It just happens to be the one that's got it's fingers around my throat.

painful stories beautiful

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.

views writing inspirational

I think men spend so much time passing for being men. There's a sense among many writers of color that the most invisible figure that was sitting between all of us was the nerd. But it was the thing we weren't saying, that people were afraid to say, like, "Yo, what we do is nerdy by definition."

color men thinking

[Donald] Trump is taking America's dirty laundry to the center stage. Everything he does, the rest of the country already does really well: victimize immigrants, poor people, women.

country america dirty

People are always fascinated by infidelity because, in the end - whether we've had direct experience or not - there's part of you that knows there's absolutely no more piercing betrayal. People are undone by it.

infidelity betrayal people

The anti-immigrant logic has basically saturated our world. I'm s... by Junot Diaz

The anti-immigrant logic has basically saturated our world. I'm staying, and I'm fighting.

logic our-world fighting