Junot Diaz Quotes

I'm undeniably very nerdy, but I'm trying to recognize and pursue more masculine pursuits.

I think men spend so much time passing for being men.

I was surrounded by a lot of male writers of color who have this incredibly bizarre relationship to masculinity. It's like we were all mega-nerds but you would never know that if you listened to the way they talk about themselves.

I'd always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.

We put stereotypes on ourselves. Everybody does that. But I think it's just a little harder for black kids to just be who they are.

I play tough guys in movies and behaved like one in front of the press because I thought that was what a man did.

Maybe I'm too masculine. Casting directors cast in their own, or an idealized image. Maybe I don't look like anybody's ideal.

It's just that I've always been a tomboy, so being thrown into the hot nerd category and the glam thing has been very interesting for me to swallow.

I don't think I could keep my position as a well-standing man in the world if I thought there were roles for men and women.

Most of us, when imagining an All-American, wouldn't picture a man who looked like me. Not even I would.

I find when I'm perceived as male in society, there is an enormous amount of pressure, but it comes with respect, so it's a balance.

I've always been in this weird indie world, and for a long time, I felt that it was not okay to be girly in that world.

Asian men are the sexiest. They got no body hair from the neck down.

I just think that culturally, women - we're all human beings - but at least we don't have our masculinity to prove.

All liaisons between homosexuals are conducted as though they were between a chorus girl and a bishop. In some cases both parties think they are bishops.

Am I proud of being straight? No. You know why? Because if I start acting proud, that's going to make me seem kind of gay.

I think it's interesting being American, the expectations for an American guy, and the image that has to be projected. 'Oh, I can't wear pink,' that kind of stuff. There's none of that in Europe.

I do definitely get boxed into this #BlackGirlMagic social activist category. But it makes me think, "Well, maybe people are able to start thinking about that concept earlier and will hopefully be inspired to delve deeper into it and research it more." I think that's just how the media works. It's just very good at compartmentalizing human beings.

The negro king desired to be portrayed as white. But do not laugh at the poor African; for every man is but another negro king, and would like to appear in a color different from that with which Fate has bedaubed him.

I don't think anyone can teach you how to be a man but a woman. You only learn by learning what they need.

Before they're plumbers or writers or taxi drivers or unemployed or journalists, before everything else, men are men. Whether heterosexual or homosexual. The only difference is that some of them remind you of it as soon as you meet them, and others wait for a little while.

I don't want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do - not what we say we are.

My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough.

Perhaps some are confused because they have stereotypes of how blacks should be and I respectfully decline, as I did in my youth, to sacrifice who I am for who they think I should be.

Why were the little girls all frightened To be just what they are The boys were told to ask themselves How high how far The girls were told to reach the shelves While the boys were reaching stars That's why little girls were frightened To be just what they are.