Derek Alton Walcott quotes
1930 – 2017 · Saint Lucia, 20th–21st century · poet, playwright, essayist, teacher and painter
About Derek Alton Walcott
Born in Castries on 23 January 1930, died at Cap Estate, Saint Lucia, on 17 March 2017. He wrote poetry, drama and essays, founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop (1959) and examined Caribbean history, language and landscape through ambitious literary forms. Nobel Prize in Literature, 1992.
Works: Omeros; Another Life; In a Green Night; Dream on Monkey Mountain
Quotes
“Art is History’s nostalgia, it prefers a thatched roof to a concrete factory, and the huge church above a bleached village.”
Source: Omeros, Book Six, Chapter XLIV (1990) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence appears in Omeros, Book Six, chap. XLIV, as the narrator reflects on artistic nostalgia.
Walcott warns that art can turn history into a picturesque souvenir: preferring a thatched roof to a concrete factory, a huge church to a bleached village. In Omeros the line is self‑critical—the poet admits artistic nostalgia can freeze people as scenery and obscure social change.