Artists are not cheerleaders, and we're not the heads of tourism boards. We expose and discuss what is problematic, what is contradictory, what is hurtful and what is silenced in the culture we're in.
Junot DiazRead
When I enter that higher-order space that's required to write, I'm a better human. For whatever my writing is, wherever it's ranked, it definitely is the one place that I get to be beautiful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The act of writing allows the author to express their true self and improve as a person.
In this quote, Junot Diaz reflects on the transformative power of writing, suggesting that when he engages in this creative process, he connects to a higher version of himself. He views writing not only as an artistic endeavor but as a form of personal development that enables him to express beauty and authenticity within his humanity.
Themes
WritingCreativitySelf-ImprovementBeautyHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech about the importance of creative expression in personal development.
More from Junot Diaz
All quotes →Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.
Junot DiazRead
I can see myself watching him shave every morning. And at other time I see us in that house and see how one bright day (or a day like this, so cold your mind shifts every time the wind does) he will wake up and decide it's all wrong. I'm sorry, he'll say. I have to leave now.
Junot DiazRead
Migration gives a blank cheque to put anything you don't feel like addressing in the memory hold. No neighbours can go against the monster narrative of your family.
Junot DiazRead
We all dream dreams of unity, of purity; we all dream that there's an authoritative voice out there that will explain things, including ourselves.
Junot DiazRead
I think 90% of my ideas evaporate because I have a terrible memory and because I seem to be committed to not scribble anything down. As soon as I write it down, my mind rejects it.
Junot DiazRead
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I think it's our job to write about what we're going through at the moment, and being 41, I'm not going to write about the same things I wrote about at 20. I don't think artists should be farmed out to pasture just because they're in rock n' roll.
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My idea of art is, you write something that makes people feel so strongly that they get some conviction about who they want to be or what they want to do. It's morally useful not in a political way, but it makes your heart bigger; it's emotionally and spiritually empowering.
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In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel.
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All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?
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From my perspective, I'm trying to stand for a generation. You know, each generation has designers who go along with it.
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I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.
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