Derek Walcott

I think, at the heart of the idea of American democracy, there is something tender. ”

Minor writers think style is all. ”

I think I would have been a totally different kind of writer if I'd gone to England. I might have developed a cynicism about my origins, a belittling of them, or an excessive nostalgia for them. ”

Individual writers have different postures, different stances, even different physical attitudes as they stand or sit over their blank paper, and in a sense, without doing it, they are crossing themselves; I mean, it's like the habit of Catholics going into water: you cross yourself before you go in. ”

After a while, when the writer is mature, it doesn't really matter - not because of finances but because of reputation. It doesn't really matter how many awards you get. ”

I don't think there is any such thing as a black writer or a white writer. Ultimately, there is someone whom one reads. ”

My mother was a schoolteacher and very, very encouraging. She understood what it meant when I said I wanted to be a writer; both me and my brother wrote. ”

I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer. ”

Our artists and writers should not be forced like soldiers to die on foreign soil or to return wounded and crawl famously into a hole. ”

I don't feel like a celebrity. Poetry justifies celebrity. It's good to have respect for a poet. ”