Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

I grew up in a place where books were very, very scarce, and I loved to read. I used to read the writing on my breakfast Ovaltine over and over again because it was in front of me, and I couldn't help but read anything that was in front of me.

Jamaica Kincaid

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Quotes to Explore

• I feel like my story would've been different had I had a chance to play with Bron when I was 18. I've thought about it countless times.

  

  J. R. Smith
  • Different
  • Thought
  • Chance

• I have a massive divide between being a competent human being and being completely hopeless, when it comes to logic.

  

  Natascha McElhone
  • Human
  • Logic
  • Hopeless

• I am more afraid of those who are terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.

  

  Saint Teresa of Avila
  • Devil
  • Afraid

• Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

  

  Walt Whitman
  • Great
  • You
  • Learning

• I don't know what the instinct is, to save every report card, every half-sentence scribbled note, but my mother did it pretty effectively, and I've done it to a fare-thee-well.

  

  Sally Mann
  • Done
  • Mother
  • Pretty

• I recently went to New York for the first time, and honey, I'm in love with that place. I'm obsessed with its sausages.

  

  Natalia Tena
  • Time
  • Place
  • Obsessed

• Maybe I'm the kind of athlete who absorbs the atmosphere instead of trying to block it out.

  

  Katarina Johnson-Thompson
  • Trying
  • Kind
  • Athlete

• I used to wear miniskirts with my GB top, and sparkly sandals, and the boys would be like: 'Oh my gosh, this girl cannot be serious.'

  

  Victoria Pendleton
  • Girl
  • Like
  • Serious

• I longed to be bright and most certainly never was. I was rather hopeless, I suspect.

  

  Maggie Smith
  • Never
  • Hopeless
  • Bright

• Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • Life
  • Desire
  • Wife

• The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.

  

  J. Martin Kohe
  • Power
  • Choose
  • Greatest

• My parents were amazing and wonderful, but there was a lot of pressure to do my best and in every way possible.

  

  Kate Bosworth
  • Parents
  • Amazing
  • Best

• I would much rather be a better mother or better human being than I would be a singer. Fortunately for me singing makes me a living.

  

  Tanya Tucker
  • Mother
  • Me
  • Singing

• I have been five minutes too late all my life-time!

  

  Hannah Cowley
  • Life
  • Time
  • Late

• The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

  

  Carl Sandburg
  • Space
  • Friend
  • Moon

• The idea that you surrender your identity when you relinquish national powers is unhelpful. No, indeed, precisely the opposite is the case: if done in an intelligent way, you attain the sovereignty to better solve national problems in cooperation with others.

  

  Ulrich Beck
  • Done
  • Better
  • Identity

• The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings.

  

  Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • Mistake
  • Errors
  • Religions

• Coming out was crucial to changing attitudes about gays and lesbians: will people feel differently about abortion if they know their mother, their aunt, or their friend had one?

  

  Katha Pollitt
  • People
  • Mother
  • Friend

• I'm intrigued by people who are super adept at manipulating their own image. We all do it to a certain extent.

  

  K. Flay
  • People
  • Image
  • Super

• I'm not a good person to have as an enemy; say nice things about me.

  

  Janice Dickinson
  • Good
  • Nice
  • Enemy

• They call, in fact, for the forfeiture, to a greater or less degree, of human liberty, to the point where, were I to attempt to sum up what socialism is, I would say that it was simply a new system of serfdom.

  

  Alexis de Tocqueville
  • Up

• I met Peter O'Toole for the first time at Dad's memorial service because my Dad didn't hang around with people like that when we were around. We didn't grow up with Richard Burton coming around to tea.

  

  Jared Harris
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

  

  Jon Secada
  • Up
  • Important

• I grew up in a place where books were very, very scarce, and I loved to read. I used to read the writing on my breakfast Ovaltine over and over again because it was in front of me, and I couldn't help but read anything that was in front of me.

  

  Jamaica Kincaid
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