Junot Díaz quotes
1968 – · Dominican Republic / United States, late 20th–early 21st c. · fiction writer, essayist and academic
About Junot Díaz
Born December 31, 1968 in Santo Domingo and raised largely in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Junot Díaz published Drown (1996) and the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He writes primarily in English, blends Dominican Spanish and popular culture into his work, and teaches creative writing at university.
Works: Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; This Is How You Lose Her
Quotes
“In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.”
Source: O, The Oprah Magazine, Becoming a Writer, November 2009 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The line appears in Junot Díaz’s November 2009 O magazine piece “Becoming a Writer” and is the ending of a longer passage.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution to Díaz is verified; the commonly quoted wording omits an earlier sentence that frames the comment by rejecting the notion of effortless talent.
Díaz frames being a writer as an act of stubborn commitment: identity comes from continuing to write when hope and signs of promise are absent. Published in a 2009 O piece, the line insists on persistence over the myth of effortless talent.