The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable.

- Jamaica Kincaid

I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess.

- Jamaica Kincaid

I didn't think of myself as an outsider because of my race because... where I grew up I was the same race as almost everyone else... It is true that …

- Jamaica Kincaid

The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide and deep and dark. The longer they are kept apart—idea of thing, reality of th…

- Jamaica Kincaid

There's something to be said about a slightly plump person—you have just enough of too much.

- Jamaica Kincaid

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

- Jamaica Kincaid

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a b…

- Jamaica Kincaid

I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in t…

- Jamaica Kincaid

Love and hatred don't take turns; they exist side by side at the same time. And one's duty, one's obligation every day, is to choose to follow the no…

- Jamaica Kincaid