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
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The only difference between a published and unpublished writer is a tolerance for imperfection.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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
If you're a status quo writer, you're considered to not be political but that's as political as if you're a progressive writer.… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think men spend so much time passing for being men. There's a sense among many writers of color that the most… — 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
The thing is - do we really need another writer who writes a book every eighteen months, whether the quality is wonderful… — 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
When I write, what I long for is not more realism or fiction but more courage. That's what I always find myself… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
When I enter that higher-order space that's required to write, I'm a better human. For whatever my writing is, wherever it's ranked,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
You try every trick in the book to keep her. You write her letters. You quote Neruda. You cancel your Facebook. You… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
As for my slowness as a writer - that's been a struggle, no question. We live in a culture that values and… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I've been trying to write. I also spent a lot of time on different campuses, in conversation, helping other writers. That's what… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
A young person, or someone who's writing in a different way - in some ways you could say, eventually someone will find… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I write incredibly slowly. And, on top of that, I spent my entire youth and twenties working like a dog, so one… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
You must learn her. You must know the reason why she is silent. You must trace her weakest spots. You must write… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
I think that most of us are aware that as writers we are seeking absences, we're seeking silences, we're seeking spaces that… — 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
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
