398 Quotes by Junot Díaz

Shot at twenty-seven times – what a Dominican number...

Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.

It’s exactly at these moments, when all hope has vanished, that prayer has dominion.

Stories are hard. I have friends who knock out stories on a weekly or monthly basis, like they’re running on medicinal-strength Updike. But for me a story is as daunting a prospect as a novel.

The greatest myth of all is what America is. I think that America is such an incredibly dynamic place because of immigration.

If you, like, consciously think about being cool, you’re not cool. If you consciously think about being, like, different or original, you ain’t different or original.

To an outsider, I just seem like a list of accomplishments. To me, all there is is how often I fail.

You’re Dominican only if you do this, this, and that. And if you do this and that, you’ll be accepted to a certain degree and if you don’t, people will scorn you for it.

The thoughts he put in her head. Someone should’ve arrested him for it.