Joy Kogawa

“From my years of teaching I know it's the children who say nothing who are in trouble more than the ones who…

— Joy Kogawa

“I hate to admit it," she said, "but for all we hear about the States, Canada's capacity for racism seems even worse."…

— Joy Kogawa

Language to me is a tool a very clumsy tool. And words are garden tools with which to till the soil of…

— Joy Kogawa

“some memories, too, might better be forgotten. didn't Obasan once say, "it is better to forget"? what purpose is served by hauling…

— Joy Kogawa

“we're a "lower order of people" in one breath we are damned for being "unassailable" and the next there is fear that…

— Joy Kogawa

“Some people," Aunt Emily answered sharply, "are so busy seeing all sides of every issue that they neutralize concern and prevent necessary…

— Joy Kogawa

Fiction, on the other hand, is like swamp fire.

— Joy Kogawa

“In a time like this, let us trust in God even more. To trust when life is easy is no trust.”

— Joy Kogawa

People who talk a lot about their victimization make me uncomfortable. It's as if they use their suffering as weapons or badges…

— Joy Kogawa

Poetry is a kind of gasp, and there it is, a spark on the page. Fiction, on the other hand, is like…

— Joy Kogawa