The sound of words in a novel is a pretty amazing thing, and I am concerned with the sound of every word I write.
Jamaica KincaidI like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.
Jamaica KincaidThe past is a room full of baggage and rubbish and sometimes things that are of use, but if they are of real use, I have kept them.
Jamaica KincaidBut some natives--most natives in the world--cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go--so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they enjoy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself.
Jamaica Kincaid