I'm one of those apocalyptics. From the start of my immigrant days, I've been fascinated by end-of-the-world stories, by outbreak narratives, and… — 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
'Drown' was always a hybrid book. It's connected stories - partially a story collection but partially a novel. I always wanted the… — 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
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
I never wanted to be away from the family. Intuitively, I knew how easily distances could harden and become permanent. — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
When I read Toni Morrison and Sandra Cisneros as a freshman at Rutgers, it all clicked - that writing was all I… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
You said i could call you when i wanted but that you wouldn’t call me. you have to decide where and when,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
For me I was always a smart nerdy kid. I wasn't the smartest and I wasn't the nerdiest, but I was a… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
When I was working on 'Drown' - this was way back in the mid-'90s - I had this idea that I wanted… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 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 his own… — Junot Díaz Copy Share Image
