Oscar Hijuelos Quotes & Sayings

“Nightclubs are the equivalent of a Catholic Church in a poor country. You hear a lot of stuff about churches filled with gold while the people are starving. But what elitists don't get is that for poor people, the church is their own mansion. Nightclubs fill the same function.”

“I enjoy listening to contemporary rock on the college stations while I'm taking long walks, love gospel and soul music, am fascinated by hip-hop and rap as the new kind of urban 'beat' poetry and, come to think of it, find something interesting about just any kind of music.”

“People in their forties, fifties, and onward enjoy the whole world of books in a different way than the Internet-age kids do.”

“Latins are predisposed to thinking about the past. Catholicism has a lot to do with it because Catholicism is a contemplation of the past, of symbols that are supposed to be eternally present.”

“As a kid I had all kinds of questions about how I fit it with my neighborhood and friends and other Latinos.”

“When you write fiction, you can sort of invent more but also pack it with emotions that are very pertinent to you. Whereas with nonfiction, you have to be as factual as possible but also hopefully - also bring... emotional relevance to the piece.”

“I have never - I have never let go of my childhood contacts. My best friends from childhood are still my best friends.”

“Music infuses your spirit with a certain energy that I try to convey in my work.”

“I teach at Duke, and I have students who are all of twenty who want to write memoirs, and you know it's all pretty interesting stuff, but a lot of them lack gravitas, you know.”

“I like to encourage young talented writers to try and help them get published and so forth, but that's all. That's the best I can do.”