Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

When one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.

I've basically thought of myself as a writer, whether I was or not.

I'm only really alive when I'm writing.

We wear a lot of labels in our lives, and it's so very easy to be defined by them. We have grown somehow accustomed to thinking of ourselves as a size eight or a size fourteen, as a capricorn or a taurus, as single or in love.

I have this identity for myself as a writer and the only thing that can happen is that I chip away from it.

I've always defined myself as a writer, I've never decided what it was I was gonna write. [...] I always fancied myself one, but I'm not. I'm so far from a writer.

But I am I now; and so many other millions are so irretrievably their own special variety of 'I' that I can hardly bear to think of it. I: how firm a letter; how reassuring the three strokes: one vertical, proud and assertive, and then the two short horizontal lines in quick, smug succession. The pen scratching on the paper…I…I…I…I…I…I.

Better to think of writing, of what one does, as an activity, rather than an identity to keep the calling a verb rather than a noun.

I don't think I'm good, I don't think I'm a good rapper. I think a lot of people always want me to battle somebody and stuff like that which is cool, but I don't see myself as a rapper.

I've come to think of myself as a writer of books.

It's funny, because I don't think of myself as a novelist. I think of myself as a writer.

I never have thought of myself as a brand. I've thought of myself as an artist.

So many people define themselves by what they've accomplished or not accomplished.

My essential identity is that of a writer.

Defining yourself by your taste is easier than defining yourself by any genuine stance on something.

I didn't want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as.

I think of myself as someone who thinks largely through writing. Thus I write more than most people, and I write in many different forms. I think of myself as the kind of person who writes, rather than as one kind of writer or another.

I saw myself as a writer, a novelist, even though I was living the life of a mother and housewife. Writing was - and is - what I do.

I'm a writer first and a woman after.

You can't ever put your self-definition in the hands of somebody who meets you for 15 minutes.

I've never, ever labeled myself.

How you define yourself is a major issue for young people and adults alike.

I don't remember a time when I didn't define myself as a writer.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn't, then why would you say I am.

There's nothing harder than defining oneself.