KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Dinaw Mengestu Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Dinaw Mengestu

Showing 1-10 of 28 Quotes by Dinaw Mengestu

When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican, half-black. Another one was from Colombia. Another one was born in the U.S., but his mom was from Germany and spoke with a German accent. So we all had multiple identities.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Accent Amazing Another Best Born Colombia Families Forest Friends Full German Germany Growing Growing Up Had His Identities Integrated Mom Multiple Park Spoke Up Vietnamese

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Personally, it's a comfort and happiness to know that my work is taken seriously and is not marginalised and put in a box of ethnic immigrant writing in America.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: America Box Comfort Ethnic Happiness Immigrant Know Marginalised Personally Put Seriously Taken Work Writing

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When I began 'All Our Names,' I did so wanting to create parallel narratives between Africa in the nineteen-seventies and America during that same period.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Africa America Began Between Create Did Names Narratives Our Parallel Period Same Wanting

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When I think of my work, I'm aware that I'm American and African at all points and times. And without a doubt, my experience and understanding of America was shaped by having immigrant parents.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: African America American Aware Doubt Experience Having Immigrant Parents Points Shaped Think Times Understanding Without Work I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I wrote my first book without being to Ethiopia since I was two years old.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Being Book Ethiopia First Old Since Two Without Wrote Years

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


'The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears' is very much about America - it just happens to have African and Ethiopian characters, and in fact, it happens to have more characters who are not Ethiopian than who are.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: About African America Bears Beautiful Beautiful Things Characters Fact Happens Heaven In Fact Just More Much Than Things Very Who

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Obviously, in marketing, the best tool is to show the autobiography in fiction. It's inevitable how that happens, but it's generic. Say I've written a story where my sister dies. 'Well, did your sister die?' No, she did not. But people use those straws to grasp at the difference between reality and fiction.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Autobiography Best Between Did Die Dies Difference Fiction Generic Grasp Happens How Inevitable Marketing Obviously People Reality Say She Show Sister Story Those Tool Use Well Where Written Your

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


As a writer, it's a great narrative tool to have that character who is slightly detached but at the same time observant of his reality, because I think that's pretty much what being a writer is - being there, watching and internalizing.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Because Being Being There Character Detached Great His Much Narrative Observant Pretty Reality Same Same Time Slightly Think Time Tool Watching Who Writer I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


My parents never referenced Ethiopia that much, largely because of the circumstances under which we left. We left during a time of political upheaval, and there was a lot of loss that came with that, so my parents were reluctant to talk about those things. So I had, by and large, an American childhood.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: About American Because Came Childhood Circumstances Ethiopia Had Large Largely Left Loss Lot Much Never Parents Political Reluctant Talk Things Those Time Upheaval Were Which

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


In high school, I began to dig my way into Ethiopian history, and began to understand myself as a young man formed by multiple narratives.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Began Dig Formed High High School History Man Multiple Myself Narratives School Understand Way Young Young Man

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: Ethiopian

Type: Novelist

Born: Unknown

Links

Find Dinaw Mengestu on Amazon

Related Authors

Richard Bach
Paulo Coelho
Charles Dickens
Ernest Hemingway
Aldous Huxley
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Walter Scott
Leo Tolstoy

Popular Authors

Thomas Aquinas W. Edwards Deming Dwight D. Eisenhower Franz Kafka D. H. Lawrence Will Rogers Alexis De Tocqueville Bell Hooks

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1808 - Gerard De Nerval

1813 - Richard Wagner

1844 - Mary Cassatt

1859 - Arthur Conan Doyle

1879 - Alla Nazimova

1907 - Laurence Olivier

1910 - Johnny Olson

1914 - Sun Ra

1914 - Vance Packard

1920 - Helen Andelin

Birthdays on May 22nd
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Freedom Funny Graduation Music Nature New Year's Romantic Work