--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean…" description: "\"I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer.\" — Derek Walcott" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg" --- # I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer. ![“I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer.” quote by Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg) > “I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer.” [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The author asserts his primary identity as a Caribbean writer, emphasizing regional influence on his literary voice. **In simple terms:** He identifies strongly with Caribbean culture in his writing. Key Takeaway Embrace your cultural roots. Themes identity literature regionalism Mood proud assertive Type literary personal When to use this quote - writing workshops - teaching - publishing Key Concepts postcolonial studies creative writing cultural studies Questions to Reflect On - How does your background shape your work? - Can you write beyond your region? A Different Perspective Regional identity may limit broader appeal. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Absolutely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absolutely/) [Absolutely Caribbean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absolutely-caribbean-1643518/) [Am](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/am/) [Caribbean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caribbean/) [Caribbean Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caribbean-writer-1643517/) [I am](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/i-am/) [Primarily](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/primarily/) [Primarily Absolutely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/primarily-absolutely-1643519/) [Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [If you talk about language in the Caribbean, you must relate it to history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/if-you-talk-about-language-in-the-caribbean-you-must-relate-it-to/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I am not in England; I live in the Caribbean. So I am not hungover by prizes and awards because it does not happen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-not-in-england-i-live-in-the-caribbean-so-i-am-not-hungover-by/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The Caribbean is an immense ocean that just happens to have a few islands in it. The people have an immense respect for it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-caribbean-is-an-immense-ocean-that-just-happens-to-have-a-few/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The Caribbean is not an idyll, not to its natives. They draw their working strength from it organically, like trees, like the sea almond…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-caribbean-is-not-an-idyll-not-to-its-natives-they-draw-their/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/visual-surprise-is-natural-in-the-caribbean-it-comes-with-the/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I am not defined as a black writer in the Caribbean, but as soon as I go to America or the U.K., my place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-not-defined-as-a-black-writer-in-the-caribbean-but-as-soon-as-i/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Modesty is not possible in performance in the Caribbean - and that's wonderful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/modesty-is-not-possible-in-performance-in-the-caribbean-and-that-s/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The Chinese, the African, and the European - they are all there. So the division of the Caribbean experience into being emphatically only African…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-chinese-the-african-and-the-european-they-are-all-there-so-the/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Miscegenation is not an idea that we would have in the Caribbean. It wouldn't come up because anybody could marry anybody, you know. I'm…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/miscegenation-is-not-an-idea-that-we-would-have-in-the-caribbean-it/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I'm from the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean in the Lesser Antilles, the lower part of the archipelago, which is a bilingual…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-m-from-the-island-of-st-lucia-in-the-caribbean-in-the-lesser/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I'm read in the Caribbean with justice, with fairness. What I expect it to do is to encourage articulacy in the young.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-m-read-in-the-caribbean-with-justice-with-fairness-what-i-expect-it/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [My delight in things is definitely Caribbean. It has to do with landscape and food. The fact that my language may have a metrical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/my-delight-in-things-is-definitely-caribbean-it-has-to-do-with/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“As human beings we’ve certainly suffered the loss of awe, the loss of sacredness, and the loss of the fact that we’re not here—…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/as-human-beings-we-ve-certainly-suffered-the-loss-of-awe-the-loss-of/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Those who know New York City primarily through tourism or mass culture may think of us natives as possessing certain shared characteristics, not all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-dee/those-who-know-new-york-city-primarily-through-tourism-or-mass/) [Jonathan Dee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-dee/) > [Therefore, our fight must primarily be a political mass struggle with revolutionary goals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joe-slovo/therefore-our-fight-must-primarily-be-a-political-mass-struggle-with/) [Joe Slovo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joe-slovo/) ## More by Derek Walcott > [Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it has been severed, like those bamboo thighs of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/memory-that-yearns-to-join-the-centre-a-limb-remembering-the-body/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/peel-your-own-image-from-the-mirror-sit-feast-on-your-life/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-don-t-feel-i-ve-arrived-home-until-i-get-on-the-beach-all-my-life/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“As human beings we’ve certainly suffered the loss of awe, the loss of sacredness, and the loss of the fact that we’re not here—…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/as-human-beings-we-ve-certainly-suffered-the-loss-of-awe-the-loss-of/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“I shall unlearn feeling, unlearn my gift. That is greater and harder than what passes there for life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-shall-unlearn-feeling-unlearn-my-gift-that-is-greater-and-harder/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The greatest writers have been, at heart, parochial, provincial in their rootedness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-greatest-writers-have-been-at-heart-parochial-provincial-in-their/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-time-will-come-when-with-elation-you-will-greet-yourself-arriving/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/break-a-vase-and-the-love-that-reassembles-the-fragments-is-stronger/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [My mother, who is nearly ninety now, still talks continually about my father. All my life, I've been aware of her grief about his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/my-mother-who-is-nearly-ninety-now-still-talks-continually-about-my/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [My family background really only consists of my mother. She was a widow. My father died quite young; he must have been thirty-one. Then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/my-family-background-really-only-consists-of-my-mother-she-was-a/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“I am the man my father loved and was.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-the-man-my-father-loved-and-was/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Like any art, what is the most imprisoning thing is also the most delivering thing. If an actor knows he only has 12 syllables…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/like-any-art-what-is-the-most-imprisoning-thing-is-also-the-most/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The thing that is believed is a reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-thing-that-is-believed-is-a-reality/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The history of the world - by which, of course, we mean Europe - is a record of intertribal lacerations, of ethnic cleansings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-history-of-the-world-by-which-of-course-we-mean-europe-is-a/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-english-language-is-nobody-s-special-property-it-is-the-property/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) [Explore all 177 Derek Walcott quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) ## More Absolutely quotes > [I am absolutely my own biggest critic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lando-norris/i-am-absolutely-my-own-biggest-critic/) [Lando Norris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lando-norris/) > [The way I look at it is, cancer research is absolutely nonpartisan. Cancer is very democratic in the sense that it attacks people regardless…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-h-koch/the-way-i-look-at-it-is-cancer-research-is-absolutely-nonpartisan/) [David H. Koch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-h-koch/) > [I was brought up by the English side of my family, who are very repressed and working class. Absolutely lovely, but very English.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bat-for-lashes/i-was-brought-up-by-the-english-side-of-my-family-who-are-very/) [Bat for Lashes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bat-for-lashes/) > [Nobody ever wins by the cavalry coming to rescue you. It isn't a question of you're happy if you get married, or you get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maeve-binchy/nobody-ever-wins-by-the-cavalry-coming-to-rescue-you-it-isn-t-a/) [Maeve Binchy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maeve-binchy/) > [“None is absolutely true.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-z-lavine/none-is-absolutely-true/) [T.Z. Lavine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-z-lavine/) > [The game business arose from computer programs that were written by and for young men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They worked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brenda-laurel/the-game-business-arose-from-computer-programs-that-were-written-by/) [Brenda Laurel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brenda-laurel/) > [If I was a man, I would be a drag queen. Honestly, I would. I absolutely love it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/scarlett-moffatt/if-i-was-a-man-i-would-be-a-drag-queen-honestly-i-would-i-absolutely/) [Scarlett Moffatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/scarlett-moffatt/) > [There's very little about being in a functional-M.R.I. scanner that is natural: you are flat on your back, absolutely still, with your head immobilized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-marantz-henig/there-s-very-little-about-being-in-a-functional-m-r-i-scanner-that-is/) [Robin Marantz Henig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-marantz-henig/) > [When you're still, and some actors are really brilliant at that, you bring a kind of energy to you as opposed to sending the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-byrne/when-you-re-still-and-some-actors-are-really-brilliant-at-that-you/) [Gabriel Byrne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-byrne/) > [I'm absolutely an Elizabeth Taylor fan!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sherilyn-fenn/i-m-absolutely-an-elizabeth-taylor-fan/) [Sherilyn Fenn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sherilyn-fenn/) > [You can absolutely be what you can't see! That's what innovators and disruptors do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kimberly-bryant/you-can-absolutely-be-what-you-can-t-see-that-s-what-innovators-and/) [Kimberly Bryant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kimberly-bryant/) > [There were a lot of clubs interested in me - a lot, really. But Manchester United appeared and didn't go away. They absolutely wanted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angel-di-maria/there-were-a-lot-of-clubs-interested-in-me-a-lot-really-but/) [Angel Di Maria](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angel-di-maria/) > [People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/people-look-at-the-same-passage-and-one-person-will-say-this-is-the/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [I absolutely love 'TOWIE.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gemma-collins/i-absolutely-love-towie/) [Gemma Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gemma-collins/) > [Chucky is absolutely still a puppet. He will remain to be.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fiona-dourif/chucky-is-absolutely-still-a-puppet-he-will-remain-to-be/) [Fiona Dourif](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fiona-dourif/) [Browse all 1,136 Absolutely quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absolutely/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Derek Walcott" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-writer/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Absolutely" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-writer/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e16/derek-walcott-2220_absolutely_i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-wr_945014.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer.” — Derek Walcott", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Derek Walcott", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-writer/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-primarily-absolutely-a-caribbean-writer/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```