Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua, which is part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. She lives in North Bennington, Vermont, during the summers and teaches at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California as the "Josephine Olp Weeks Chair and Professor of Literature" as well as the "Professor of African and American studies in Residence" at Harvard during the academic year. Kincaid is an award-winning writer...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 May 1949
laughter stupid sometimes
Sometimes when someone says something stupid, my friends and I just read the reviews out loud and collapse with laughter at the stupidity of it all.
travel stupid ugly-things
An ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing, a piece of rubbish pausing here and there to gaze at this and taste that, and it will never occur to you that the people who inhabit the place in which you have just paused cannot stand you.
culture outlaw american-culture
I suppose you could say I love outlaw American culture.
writing successful careers
The thing about writing in America is that writers in America have an arc. You enter writing as a career, you expect to be successful, and really it's the wrong thing. It's not a profession.
people way riches
On their way to freedom, some people find riches, some people find death.
writing thinking way
I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.
triumph feels hollow
It was hollow, my triumph, I could feel that, but I held on to it just the same.
jobs writing jokes
A professional writer is a joke. You write because you can't do anything else, and then you have another job.
real thinking doubt
That is how I came to think that heavy and hard was the beginning of living, real living; and though I might not end up with a mark on my cheek, I had no doubt that I would end up with a mark somewhere.
heart feet lovely
That the world I was in could be soft, lovely, and nourishing was more than I could bear, and so I stood there and wept, for I didn't want to love one more thing in my life, didn't want one more thing that could make my heart break into a million little pieces at my feet.
people elements consciousness
Time is the element that controls the consciousness, the very being of the people.
race america holocaust
The history of race relations in America is very different than something like the Holocaust.
winter used
I've never gotten used to winter and never will.
ideas facts good-ideas
I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.