My father was a Little League dictator. That really affected me, his control-freakery, his impunity, his arbitrary unreasonable power. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn't mean you don't have them. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“It was the curse that made me do it, you know. I don't believe in that sh*t, Oscar. That's our parents' sh*t.… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
“...maybe she just doesn't like children. Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn't mean you don't have them.” — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
My father was a trigamist; he supported three families. We were never not poor. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
For a long time, I let my mother say what she wanted about me, and what was worse, for a long time… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
My mother took care of us until my father scrammed, and then she ended up working in the small-factory sector of New… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“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… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
“Something must have happened, your mother speculated. In her mind a woman with no child could only be explained by vast untrammeled… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
What else she doesn't know: that the man next to her would end up being her husband and the father of her… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I was really drawn to thinking about the women in my life. Thinking about my mother, who's a very powerful force on… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“You hear mothers say all the time that they would die for their children, but my mom never said shit like that.… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
“Ramfis fled the country after Trujillo's death, lived dissolutely off his father's swag, and ended up dying in a car crash of… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
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… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“You don't know what it's like to grow up with a mother who never said a positive thing in her life, not… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
It might interest you that just as the U.S. was ramping up its involvement in Vietnam, LBJ launched an illegal invasion of the Dominican… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
You ask everybody you know: How long does it usually take to get over it? There are many formulas. One year for every year… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
Instead of finding himself in nerd heaven—where every nerd gets fifty-eight virgins to role-play with—he woke up in Robert Wood Johnson with two broken… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
The one thing about being a dude and writing from a female perspective is that the baseline is, you suck. The baseline is it… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
“I used to think those were the barrio rules, Latinos and blacks in, whites out —a place we down cats weren’t supposed to go.… — Junot Díaz Copy Share
I've always thought that you don't love a country by turning a blind eye to its crimes and to a problem. The way that… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
“Called her a whore and attacked her walls, tearing down her posters and throwing her books everywhere. I found out because some whitegirl ran… — Junot Díaz Copy Share
You're Dominican only if you do this, this, and that. And if you do this and that, you'll be accepted to a certain degree… — Junot Diaz Copy Share
“Ramfis fled the country after Trujillo's death, lived dissolutely off his father's swag, and ended up dying in a car crash of his own… — Junot Díaz Copy Share
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. — Junot Diaz Copy Share
“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 Díaz Copy Share
The only difference between a published and unpublished writer is a tolerance for imperfection. — Junot Diaz Copy Share
