Gustavo Perez Firmat Quotes

• The fact that I
  am writing to you
  in English
  already falsifies what I
  wanted to tell you.
  My subject:
  how to explain to you that I
  don't belong to English
  though I belong nowhere else

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Writing, Facts, Wanted

  Roberto Tinoco Duran, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Gustavo Pérez Firmat (1987). “Triple Crown: Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Cuban-American Poetry”, Bilingual Review Press

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• I was born in Cuba but was made in the USA.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Usa, Cuba, Born

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• My writing, such as it is, grows out of my sense of discolation, I mean, dislocation. Having lost my place, I write to find my place, or to find once again that I have lost my place.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Writing, Mean, Lost

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• My father's death took me to a place I had never been and a place I had never left. In his absence, I've had to rely more on myself.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Father, Absence, Rely

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• I am a loner by nature, and then I'm a writer, which makes me twice a loner.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Loner

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• Every book I think will be my last one because after finishing I have the sense that I've said all I have to say, but I always seem to find a new way of repeating myself.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Book, Thinking, Finishing

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• Literature is breathing. I teach literature the way someone else might teach First Aid.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Breathing, Literature, Might

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• When I was younger, I dreaded having to write. I would find every possible excuse not to sit down at the typewriter (this was a long time ago). As I've gotten older, I've learned to enjoy putting sentences together, though I still believe that writing, unlike sex, is always better after you're through.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Sex, Believe, Writing

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• I say that being a smart writer doesn't make you a good writer. There's obviously a difference between talent and intelligence. And it may be that at some point intelligence begins to impinge on talent, or talent on intelligence.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Smart, Differences, May

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• I read fiction all the time. It's true that I don't like fantasy or science fiction. I like "realistic" novels, particularly those in which nothing much ever happens.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Fiction, Fantasy, Realistic

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• There's a Cuban saying: Bicho malo nunca muere. Loose translation: The good die young but the wicked live forever. It seems to apply to Fidel. I hope it applies to me.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Forever, Wicked, Cuban

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• For me the path to the literary goes through the non - literary. For this reason it surprises me that I am a writer, or that people speak of me as a writer. I'm flattered, but I don't quite believe it.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Believe, People, Path

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

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• Teaching is my most reliable form of human contact. I love the opportunity to speak Spanish (which I don't do at home), the give-and-take with students, the surprises. One day you think you have the goods for a sensational class and it bombs. The next day you have nothing and the class turns out splendidly.

  Gustavo Perez Firmat

  Teaching, Home, Opportunity

  Source: www.gustavoperezfirmat.com

  4 Copy quote

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