The body is what reminds us on a daily basis that we're human. The body defies us, it betrays us, we have to struggle with it, you know. And it reveals in curious and in abiding ways how we are not perfect.
Junot DiazPart of it is eight years of a black president, and white America still lost their [minds] about that. Part of it is a Republican politics of vicious, vicious partisan [stuff] that has completely poisoned what we would call the political rhetorical sphere. All of these things come together in a perfect storm.
Junot DiazI always individuate myself from other writers who say they would die if they couldn't write. For me, I'd die if I couldn't read.
Junot DiazThatโs life for you. All the happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away like itโs nothing. If you ask me I donโt think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. Thatโs enough.
Junot DiazThere's nothing more true in being a child of a diaspora, a child of immigrants. We're completely new to our parents. We're not something they can ever understand. And it's not as if we are ever going to be accepted. We're accepted as long as we conform to what we are expected to be, and I'm sure that's not any different for anyone else.
Junot Diaz