Interestingly, in Cuba abortion is treated as lightly as getting a mole removed.
ACHY OBEJASInterestingly, in Cuba abortion is treated as lightly as getting a mole removed.
More Achy Obejas Quotes
-
-
Fiction lies somewhere in between. I usually start intuitively but eventually I need to stop and consider structure, or research, or both.
ACHY OBEJAS -
It’s a neat skill to have but it’s deadly for literature. In literature, you need to stare at that hole, not ignore it. You need to figure it out.
ACHY OBEJAS -
I feel possessive about stories I write in Spanish and so I usually end up translating those into English myself.
ACHY OBEJAS -
The legacy of the embargo will be Cuba’s poverty and desperation. When the island comes out of it, they’ll be even more desperate than they are now about the things they think they’ve missed.
ACHY OBEJAS -
And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.
ACHY OBEJAS -
And then when we moved, I reconfigured my writing desk. The previous one had had very little space to write by hand. And suddenly, the poetry was gushing!
ACHY OBEJAS -
So much depends on our health, and we tend to take it so for granted.
ACHY OBEJAS -
I’m never afraid of research. I relish it!
ACHY OBEJAS -
I tell people to have a relationship with their work every day, even if it means you just move a comma.
ACHY OBEJAS -
Offspring were a joy or a shame, but still the crown of their elders, nature’s unpredictable creatures.
ACHY OBEJAS -
In journalism, if there’s a hole in your story you figure out a way around it because you’ve got a 4 p.m. deadline.
ACHY OBEJAS -
Our real world has evolved. It’s become something much different, and inadvertently about healthcare, and about what it means to have good health, and to be able to have good health.
ACHY OBEJAS -
Each genre has its own process. I’m very intuitive about poetry. I usually write first and second drafts out by hand. The other end of the spectrum is journalism, which is much more cerebral, more thought-out and planned.
ACHY OBEJAS -
Journalism is very much public writing, writing with an audience in mind, writing for publication, and frequently writing quickly.
ACHY OBEJAS -
I think one of the unintended results of the embargo is that Cuba is quite consumerist – and I’m talking about the people, not the government or the official propaganda.
ACHY OBEJAS