Quotes from Jamaica Kincaid

I had just begun to notice that people who knew the correct way to do things such as hold a teacup, put food on a fork and bring it to their mouth without making a mess on the front of their dress—they were the people responsible for the most misery, the people least likely to end up insane or paupers.

Nunca se le ha ocurrido pensar que quizá su forma de querernos no sea lo mejor para nosotros.Nunca se le ha ocurrido pensar que quizá su forma de querernos la haya beneficiado más a ella que a nosotros. ¿Y por qué iba a ser así? Quizá toda forma de amor revierta en beneficio propio. No lo sé, no lo sé.

Je comprends seulement maintenant pourquoi les gens mentent sur leur passé, pourquoi ils disent qu'ils sont une chose autre que la chose qu'ils sont réellement, pourquoi ils s'inventent un être qui ne présente aucune ressemblance avec qui ils sont réellement, pourquoi quiconque voudrait avoir le sentiment de n'être de nulle part, de ne venir de personne, d'être tombé du ciel, voilà tout, complet.

è necessario vivere più a lungo di chi potrebbe dire qualcosa sul nostro conto, per non lasciargli l'ultima parola (76).

The sun was shining but the air was cold. It was the middle of January, after all. But I did not know that the sun could shine and the air remain cold; no one had ever told me.

Da bambina facevo esattamente la stessa cosa: mi sdraiavo sul letto con i piedi al sole sul davanzale della finestra perché a quel tempo avevo sempre i piedi freddi. Poi mi mettevo a leggere un libro, e questa scena con me sdraiata che leggo un libro mandava mia madre su tutte le furie, certa com'era che fossi destinata a una vita di indolenza, quando invece ero solo destinata a scrivere libri che altri avrebbero letto (34).

en blekgul sol som verkade ha försvagats av överansträngning. Men det var soligt i alla fall, vilket var trevligt och lindrade min hemlängtan. Så när jag såg att solen sken klev jag upp och satte mig en klänning. Det var helt fel. Solen sken visserligen men det var kallt i luften. Det var mitten av januari men jag kände inte till att solen kunde skina utan att det blev varmt. Det hade ingen upplyst mig om.

I had come to feel that my mother's love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn't know why, but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone.

Je suis si vulnérable aux besoins et à l'influence des membres de ma famille que de temps en temps je m'en tiens à l'écart. Je ne leur écris pas. Je ne leur rends pas visite. Je ne mens pas, je ne nie pas, je me tiens seulement à l'écart.

His death was imminent and we were all anticipating it, including him, but we never gave any thought to the fact that this was true for all of us, too: our death was imminent, only we were not anticipating it ... yet.

always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach

try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming

this is how to love a man; and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up

Jag önskar att jag kunde älska någon så högt att jag bara dog. Och när jag tittade på denna mening sköljde en våg av skam över mig. Jag brast i gråt och tårarna trillade ner på boksidan tills orden förvandlades till en stor plump.

Death is the only reality, for it is the only certainty, inevitable to all things.

Mariah did not seem to notice what she had in common with the other diners, or what I had in common with the waiters. She acted in her usual way, which was that the world was round and we all agreed on that, when I knew that the world was flat and if I went to the edge I would fall off.

How soft is the blackness as it falls. It falls in silence and yet it is deafening, for no other sound except the blackness falling can be heard. The blackness falls like soot from a lamp with an untrimmed wick. The blackness is visible and yet it is invisble, for I see that I cannot see it. The blackness fills up a small room, a large field, an island, my own being. The blackness cannot bring me joy but often I am made glad in it.

For my mother would never come to see that perhaps my needs were more important than her wishes.

Like her, all of the members of this organization were well off but they made no connection between their comforts and the decline of the world that lay before them.

if all the things she wanted to save in the world were saved, she might find herself in reduced circumstances; I couldn't bring myself to ask her to examine Lewis's daily conversations with his stockbroker, to see if they bore any relation to the things she saw passing away forever before her eyes.

She could imagine the demise of the fowl of the air, fish in the sea, mankind itself, but not that the only man she had ever loved would no longer love her. She complained about the weather, she complained about all sorts of things that ordinarily she would not have noticed; she criticized my behavior, and then she criticized herself for criticizing me.

A tourist is an ugly human being

The snow was the color and texture of a half-cooked egg white, making the world seem soft and lovely and - unexpectedly, to me - nourishing. That the world I was in could be soft, lovely, and nourishing was more than I could bear, and so I stood there and wept, for I didn't want to love one more thing in my life, didn't want one more thing that could make my heart break into a million little pieces at my feet.

It wasn't her fault. It wasn't my fault. But nothing could change the fact that where she saw beautiful flowers I saw sorrow and bitterness.