I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book. Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes by Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes From Jamaica Kincaid The people who invented race, who grouped us together as "black," were inventing and categorizing their ability to do something vicious and wrong. Jamaica Kincaid black race people On their way to freedom, some people find riches, some people find death. Jamaica Kincaid riches people way Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are. Jamaica Kincaid mothers-day inspiring children Why is a picture of something real eventually more exciting than the thing itself? Jamaica Kincaid something-real real exciting When I write a book, I hope to be beyond mortal by the time I'm finished. Jamaica Kincaid finished writing book One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You cry when you're born because your lungs expand. You breathe. I think that's really kind of significant. You come into the world crying, and it's a sign that you're alive. Jamaica Kincaid alive world thinking My disappointments stand up and grow ever taller. They will not be lost to me. Jamaica Kincaid grows disappointment lost I swim in a shaft of light, upside down, and I can see myself clearly, through and through, from every angle. Perhaps I stand on the brink of a great discovery. Jamaica Kincaid light swim discovery Of course, every time I end a book, I look down at myself and I'm just the same. I'm always disappointed that I'm just the same, but not enough to never do it again! Jamaica Kincaid enough book looks Once you cease to be a master, once you throw off your master's yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are a human being, and all the things that adds up to. So, too, with the slaves. Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings. Jamaica Kincaid yoke noble add I come from a little island with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. I come from, really, nowhere, and for me, the fiction and the nonfiction, creative or otherwise, all come from the same place. Jamaica Kincaid ocean sea islands The photograph of my brother that is in this album shows a young man, beautiful and perfect in the way of young people, for young people are always perfect and beautiful until they are not, until the moment they just are not. Jamaica Kincaid brother beautiful men But no longer could I aks God what to do, since the answer, I was sure, would not suit me. I could do what suited me know, as long as I could pay for it. 'As long as I could pay for it.' That phrase soon became the tail that wagged my dog. If I had died then, it should have been my epigraph. Jamaica Kincaid should-have dog long In a way, a garden is the most useless of creations, the most slippery of creations: it is not like a painting or a piece of sculpture-it won't accrue value as time goes on. Time is its enemy' time passing is merely the countdown for the parting between garden and gardener. Jamaica Kincaid sculpture garden enemy I wrote home to say how lovely everything was, and I used flourishing words and phrases, as if I were living life in a greeting card - the kind that has a satin ribbon on it, and quilted hearts and roses, and is expected to be so precious to the person receiving it that the manufacturer has placed a leaf of plastic on the front to protect it. Jamaica Kincaid live-life home heart That the world I was in could be soft, lovely, and nourishing was more than I could bear, and so I stood there and wept, for I didn't want to love one more thing in my life, didn't want one more thing that could make my heart break into a million little pieces at my feet. Jamaica Kincaid lovely feet heart That is how I came to think that heavy and hard was the beginning of living, real living; and though I might not end up with a mark on my cheek, I had no doubt that I would end up with a mark somewhere. Jamaica Kincaid real doubt thinking I don't really do anything that isn't about writing, and I don't really know who I am if I'm not thinking about writing. Jamaica Kincaid who-i-am writing thinking I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending. Jamaica Kincaid writing way thinking The families of rabbits or woodchucks will eat the salad greens just before they are ready to be picked; I plot ways to kill these animals but can never bring myself to do it. Jamaica Kincaid plot rabbits animal
