Consider the difference between the first and third person in poetry [...] It's like the difference between looking at a person and looking through their eyes.
Diana Abu-JaberIf you only write for 15 minutes at a time, you can write a book and still have time for Legos.
Diana Abu-JaberI honestly never intended food to occupy so much of my creative work. Food-writing often seems about to plummet straight into sentimentality. I think food can be dangerous to write about because if you don't manage to mediate it somehow, it can be the worst sort of greeting card.
Diana Abu-JaberThe obsession with food filled my childhood - that's what happens when your parents are from a place or time where people really might starve. In America, my Jordanian father spent decades cooking professionally and pursuing his dream of a restaurant, and it was one of the central ways that he explained himself to his American children. Even though he's a passionate talker, he has a hell of a time with listening. His cooking gave him a way of having a conversation - which was a really interesting thing for a writer to look at.
Diana Abu-Jaber