"I think that a single identifier for a writer is simply to be deeply connected to the truth, and to..."

“I think that a single identifier for a writer is simply to be deeply connected to the truth, and to serve nothing else—to treat it as something sort of sacred. In my deepest alone moments, I think that writing is a sacred act and that’s why it is in some ways a violation to do it. And that’s why you should do it with the most truthfulness you can. Even if you’re writing a cartoon, it just shouldn’t be a lie. That being said, to be good is an ideal. I don’t know how to be good. I know I shouldn’t kick a dog, never mind a child. But after that it gets complicated. I don’t know how to sort the day. I like that moment before you know who you are, when you wake up in the morning and you don’t really know who you are yet. Almost everything you do after that is wrong. Just about everything. The cup of coffee, the toast, it involves a series of wrongs, and I don’t know how to extricate myself from that. I try to attempt to do less of them, but how to not do any of them, how to be completely good—not even completely good—how to just be good enough: I don’t know.”

- Jamaica Kincaid, as interviewed by Ru Freeman in the new issue of Pen America (via mttbll)