I grew up with the idealistic notion that writing and literature were noble causes. I had no inkling, no sense of what I would eventually encounter in terms of people who weren't being sincere. I'm not saying that it happens… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
If I write a paragraph and I don't get a certain lift from it, if I don't feel connected to it emotionally, then it's dead to me. When I'm reading other fiction writers, if I don't get any emotional investment… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
“Glorious life ending. There must have been a moment when his son had gasped for air, the last time, as Jesus must. But as… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
Music infuses your spirit with a certain energy that I try to convey in my work. — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
People in their forties, fifties, and onward enjoy the whole world of books in a different way than the Internet-age kids do. — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
Nightclubs are the equivalent of a Catholic Church in a poor country. You hear a lot of stuff about churches filled with gold while… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
“The house in which the fourteen sisters of Emilio Montez O'brien lived, radiated femininity.” — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
If you start believing all that press about you, you're in trouble. I don't even read my reviews. — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
It's true that immigrant novels have to do with people going from one country to another, but there isn't a single novel that doesn't… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
A lot of people consider my books to be straightforward, but I think that I write from atmosphere to atmosphere rather than from event… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
Latins are predisposed to thinking about the past. Catholicism has a lot to do with it because Catholicism is a contemplation of the past,… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
Oh yes!...The sweet summons of God to man. That's when He calls you up to His arms. And it's the most beautiful thing, a… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
“On his back, Robert must have had time to see something beautiful, and not just the ugliness of a city street at the end… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
As a fiction writer you train yourself to think about situations subjectively. I don't really care for narratives that are just A, B, C,… — Oscar Hijuelos Copy Share Image
