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 More Quotes by Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes From Jamaica Kincaid I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea. Jamaica Kincaid good-ideas facts ideas I used to want to be a backup singer. Not a lead singer, because I really can't sing. Jamaica Kincaid singers used want I didn't think of myself as an outsider because of my race because... where I grew up I was the same race as almost everyone else... It is true that I noticed things that no one else seemed to notice. And I think only people who are outsiders do this. Jamaica Kincaid race people thinking I'm so used to being misunderstood. Jamaica Kincaid being-misunderstood misunderstood used The African-American is often used, and has conspired with the rest of America to be used, as a diversion from America's problems. I wish African-Americans would stop contributing to this sideshow. I also wish all African-Americans would cease to sing and dance just for a generation. I think we provide too much entertainment. Jamaica Kincaid problem wish thinking Every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. Every native everywhere lives a life of overwhelming and crushing banality and boredom and desperation and depression, and every deed, good and bad, is an attempt to forget this. Jamaica Kincaid boredom crush travel I can write anywhere. I actually wrote more than I ever did when I had small children. My children were never a hindrance. Jamaica Kincaid small-child writing children I suppose you could say I love outlaw American culture. Jamaica Kincaid american-culture outlaw culture I didn't know it was possible to be successful as a writer, so I wasn't afraid to fail. Jamaica Kincaid afraid-to-fail failing successful I didn't really understand racism because I grew up in an all-black society, so I didn't see how it was possible not to like me! Jamaica Kincaid black grew-up racism I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes. Jamaica Kincaid dishes cooking thinking I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess. Jamaica Kincaid princess want people The strange thing about my life is that I came to America at about the time when racial attitudes were changing. This was a big help to me. Also, the people who were most cruel to me when I first came to America were black Americans. They made absolute fun of the way I talked, the way I dressed. I couldn't dance. The people who were most kind and loving to me were white people. So what can one make of that? Perhaps it was a coincidence that all the people who found me strange were black and all the people who didn't were white. Jamaica Kincaid attitude fun people I was then at the height of my two-facedness: that is, outside I seemed one way, inside I was another; outside false, inside true. Jamaica Kincaid height two way The thing to remember about the Declaration of Independence and the profession of freedom is that it was written by people who were quite free and who were surrounded by people who were not free. The people who wrote the Declaration of Independence were ventriloquists really. The obsession with freedom makes no sense when it applies to them. Jamaica Kincaid independence remember people I like to be depressing. I feel it's my duty to make everyone a little less happy. You know that line in the Declaration of Independence, "the pursuit of happiness"? I've come to think that it has no meaning at all. You cannot pursue happiness. And to think that this bad little sentence has determined our lives. Jamaica Kincaid pursuit-of-happiness depressing thinking Most of the nations that have serious gardening cultures have, or had, empires. You can't have this luxury of pleasure without somebody paying for it. This is nice to know. It's nice to know that when you sit down to enjoy a plate of strawberries, somebody got paid very little so that you could have your strawberries. It doesn't mean the strawberries will taste different, but it's nice to enjoy things less than we do. We enjoy things far too much, and it leads to incredible pain and suffering. Jamaica Kincaid pain nice mean There are things that make us choose, on certain days, on certain nights, the opposite of love, in all its variations. But I want to acknowledge that with love and hate it's not simply one or the other. It's at least two, three, four, five different emotions existing at once, side by side, a broad spectrum of things alive. Jamaica Kincaid hate opposites night The sound of words in a novel is a pretty amazing thing, and I am concerned with the sound of every word I write. Jamaica Kincaid novel sound writing I was just looking at moving to Cambridge, and a house I was looking at cost a million dollars. Because somehow, that's what a house costs. And I was thinking, "How can it be?" And I was thinking, "What am I doing? Am I going to be Niall Ferguson, that horrible man? Jamaica Kincaid men moving thinking
