My writing has always been met with derision or dismissal. Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes by Jamaica Kincaid More Quotes From Jamaica Kincaid I was a new person then, I knew things I had not known before, I knew things that you can know only if you have been through what I had just been through. Jamaica Kincaid has-beenspersonsknows The past is a room full of baggage and rubbish and sometimes things that are of use, but if they are of real use, I have kept them. Jamaica Kincaid realusepast No matter how happy I had been in the past I do not long for it. The present is always the moment for which I love. Jamaica Kincaid matterlongpast Someone who knew me well once accused me of being unromantic. And that's probably true: I don't trust romance. Jamaica Kincaid accuseddont-trustromance It is true that I am a writer, and I was married to a composer, and I have lived in a small village in New England, but my children are not named Heracles and Persephone, and my daughter doesn't disappear underground every six months and emerge in the spring. Jamaica Kincaid daughtermotherchildren I read about writers who have routines. They write at certain times of the day. I can't do that. I am always writing-but in my head. Jamaica Kincaid certaini-canwriting All of these declarations of what writing ought to be, which I had myself-though, thank God I had never committed them to paper-I think are nonsense. You write what you write, and then either it holds up or it doesn't hold up. There are no rules or particular sensibilities. I don't believe in that at all anymore. Jamaica Kincaid writingbelievethinking The thing we call romance is a diversion from something truer, which is life. Jamaica Kincaid diversionromance One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person. Jamaica Kincaid lonelylonelinessreading I've never gotten used to winter and never will. Jamaica Kincaid usedwinter Time is the element that controls the consciousness, the very being of the people. Jamaica Kincaid elementsconsciousnesspeople Life has a truth to it, and it's complicated - it's love and it's hatred. Jamaica Kincaid hatredcomplicated Tomorrow exists even though I may not exist in it. Jamaica Kincaid tomorrowmay What distinguished my life from my brother's is that my mother didn't like me. When I became a woman, I seemed to repel her. Jamaica Kincaid distinguishedbrothermother When once I got to America I fell in love with hippie culture, and I've always wanted to live in the country and grow organic vegetables. Jamaica Kincaid vegetableshippiecountry What frustrates me is to see African-Americans behave as though what European-Americans say is worthwhile. It simply isn't. It's just some silly people who can make laws and have the power to enforce them. I'm often amazed at the conversations black people have about themselves. They ought to be having these conversations about white people. It's white people who are flawed and at fault. Jamaica Kincaid blacksillypeople If I actually ran the world, I'd do it from the kitchen. It's not anything deliberate or a statement or anything, that's just how I understand things. It's arranged along informal lines. Jamaica Kincaid kitchenlinesworld Habit gives endurance, and fatigue is the best night cap. Jamaica Kincaid endurancegivingnight when people say you're charming you are in deep trouble. Jamaica Kincaid charmingtroublepeople It's not that I'm a very good person. It's that I think I should at least look at the ways in which I am not a good person, the ways in which I so readily become the person who would not notice that the wonderful clothing I'm wearing someone is probably dying for. Jamaica Kincaid dyinglooksthinking
