I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very strong thing.
Derek WalcottRead
Miscegenation is not an idea that we would have in the Caribbean. It wouldn't come up because anybody could marry anybody, you know. I'm not saying that there aren't prejudices in the Caribbean, but the idea of the word 'miscegenation' is not something that we think of.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes acceptance and lack of racial boundaries in Caribbean relationships.
Derek Walcott's quote reflects the cultural context of the Caribbean, where inter-racial relationships are widely accepted, and the historical notion of 'miscegenation' does not hold the same significance as in other societies. While prejudices may exist, the Caribbean’s social fabric allows for a more inclusive approach to love and partnership, demonstrating an openness to marrying across racial and ethnic lines.
Themes
CaribbeanRelationshipsDiversityAcceptanceLove
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech promoting multiculturalism, one might reference this quote to highlight the Caribbean's acceptance of diversity.
More from Derek Walcott
All quotes →Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.
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A long time ago, I thought, as a writer in the Caribbean, 'I don't ever want to have to write 'It was great in Paris.'' Because I don't think, proportionately speaking, that one's experience in a city as opposed to, say, a village in St. Lucia, is superior to the other.
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My mother was a schoolteacher and very, very encouraging. She understood what it meant when I said I wanted to be a writer; both me and my brother wrote.
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When I went to college - when I read Shakespeare or Dickens or Scott - I just felt that, as a citizen of England, a British citizen, this was as much my heritage as any schoolboy's. That is one of the things the Empire taught, that apart from citizenship, the synonymous inheritance of the citizenship was the literature.
Derek WalcottRead
The truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element.
Derek WalcottRead
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