Tag Archives: Junot Diaz

I look most like myself… when I'm wearing my black, nerdy engineering glasses. Junot Diaz

Even I thought I would be a writer who put something out every year. But that's not how it worked out. Junot Diaz

I mean, I'm an artist by nature; no one considers what I do and no one knows who the heck I am, but that anybody does – it is astonishing. Junot Diaz

I have a very powerful sense of place, but I have a very powerful sense of being a migrant, so it's both. It seems like I'm always leaving my home. That's part of the formula. I love the Dominican Republic. I go back all the time. I love New Jersey. Go back all the time. […]

I think 90% of my ideas evaporate because I have a terrible memory and because I seem to be committed to not scribble anything down. As soon as I write it down, my mind rejects it. Junot Diaz

When I became my masked identity I was this incredible little nerd, but in the real world I had to be this tough kid from the neighborhood. Junot Diaz

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 always wanted to set a world-ender on Hispaniola. Junot Diaz

It took me sixteen years to write. Junot Diaz

My thing is, I'm just way too harsh. It's an enormous impediment, and that's just the truth of it. It doesn't make me any better, make me any worse, it certainly isn't more valorous. I have a character defect, man. Junot Diaz

I act most like myself… when I'm in my hometown, Santo Domingo. I try to get there about five times a year. Junot Diaz