Even I thought I would be a writer who put something out every year. But that's not how it worked out. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I never hear white writers get asked, 'Do you worry about how you represent white people?' — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
'Oscar Wao' for example cohered in a period of terrible distress. All the novels that I wanted to write were not happening. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think one of the paradoxes of writing fiction is when people enjoy it, they want it to be real. So they… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I always individuate myself from other writers who say they would die if they couldn't write. For me, I'd die if I… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I'm having so much trouble with writing. Maybe if I help other people, it'll be easier for me. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
The only difference between a published and unpublished writer is a tolerance for imperfection. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I'm still trying to figure out how to write about cancer and my family's experience with it. If I had been able… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“From what I saw the plurality of students and faculty had been educated exclusively in the tradition of writers like William Gaddis...” — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
The one thing about being a dude and writing from a female perspective is that the baseline is, you suck. The baseline… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
Stereotypes, they're sensual, cultural weapons. That's the way that we attack people. At an artistic level, stereotypes are terrible writing. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I didn't start writing until late high school and then I was just diddling. Mainly I loved to read and my writing… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think that most of my writer friends are really compulsive. I think that's great. It's wonderful for them. It's just not… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I really am a believer that 99.99% of all the stories we need, not only as artists but as human beings, not… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
We get so many people saying short fiction is not economical, that it doesn't sell; but there are so many of us… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
When I was thinking about these women characters, no matter how bad a person I am - a bad writer, my limitations,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
There are a couple of strategies for writing about an absence or writing about a loss. One can create the person that… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“The next day you look at the new pages. For once you don't want to burn them or give up writing forever.… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
It wasn't that I couldn't write. I wrote every day. I actually worked really hard at writing. At my desk by 7… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
But it's clear to me that us slow-poke writers are a dying breed. It's amazing how thoroughly my young writing students have… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
In '94, I started writing a novel about an enormous terrorist act that destroyed the United States. The novel takes place twenty… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think there's something really painful about your identity being entirely composed of ghosts. For me, I didn't want to be this… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
“After his initial homecoming week, after he'd been taken to a bunch of sights by his cousins, after he'd gotten somewhat used… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
“He whistles. Que viva Colombia. Hands you back the Book. You really should write the cheater's guide to love. You think? I… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
If you really want a prize, or if you really want applause, you should try to write as many books as humanly… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I write very, very slowly, and for me, I have to summon all sorts of resources to make one of these pieces… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think that if you're writing about the human condition, my God, you've got to start at base: point zero, point one,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
The art is just really mysterious. If I understood it more, maybe I would write more. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
Because I can't seem to escape it. It's a way for me to address and counter my questions about what it means… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“We’re committed to the idea that a book has to live in the present . . . but the reality, that’s hard for us to recognise,… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
An ear will never do you wrong, but I know writers who... most of the language they use is just extracted language… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
Let me tell you, if I could write one-tenth as fast as some of my friends, I'd be made. I'd be it.… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
Used to be in the old days, only the pulp writers wrote like machines. Now everybody is expected to be literary John… — Junot Diaz 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
