Giannina Braschi citations (37 citations)

“If you look for an identity you find inequality. If you look for similarities you separate one truth from another.”

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Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi, in United States of Banana, 2011

“Poetry must find ways of breaking distance.”

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Giannina Braschi livre Yo-Yo Boing!

Yo-Yo Boing! (Spanglish novel, 1998)
Contexte: If I respected languages like you do, I wouldn't write at all. El muro de Berlín fue derribado. Why can't I do the same? Desde la torre de Babel, las lenguas han sido siempre una forma de divorciarnos del resto de la humanidad. Poetry must find ways of breaking distance. I'm not reducing my audience. On the contrary, I'm going to have a bigger audience with the common markets — in Europe — in America. And besides, all languages are dialects that are made to break new grounds. I feel like Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, and I even feel like Garcilaso forging a new language. Saludo al nuevo siglo, el siglo del nuevo lenguaje de América, y le digo adiós a la retórica separatista y a los atavismos.

“Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is our religion.”

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Giannina Braschi livre United States of Banana

United States of Banana (2011)

“What does winter or autumn or spring or summer know of memory. They know nothing of memory. They know that seasons pass and return. They know that they are seasons. That they are time. And they know how to affirm themselves. And they know how to impose themselves. And they know how to maintain themselves, What does autumn know of summer. What sorrows do seasons have. None hate. None love. They just pass.”

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Giannina Braschi

Empire of Dreams (prose poetry, 1988)

“I saw a torso falling--no legs--no head--just a torso. I am redundant because I can’t believe what I saw. I saw a torso falling--no legs--no head--just a torso--tumbling in the air--dressed in a bright white shirt--the shirt of the businessman--tucked in--neatly--under the belt--snugly fastened--holding up his pants that had no legs. He had hit a steel girder--and he was dead--dead for a ducat, dead--on the floor of Krispy Krème--with powdered donuts for a head--fresh out of the oven--crispy and round--hot and tasty--and this businessman--on the ground was clutching a briefcase in his hand--and on his finger, the wedding band. I suppose he thought his briefcase was his life--or his wife--or that both were one--because the briefcase was as tight in hand as the wedding band.”

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Giannina Braschi livre United States of Banana

United States of Banana (2011)

“Poets and anarchists are always the first to go.
—Where.
—To the frontline. Wherever it is.”

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Giannina Braschi livre Yo-Yo Boing!

Yo-Yo Boing! (Spanglish novel, 1998)

“Questions don't change the truth, but they give it motion.”

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Giannina Braschi

Empire of Dreams (prose poetry, 1988)

“I have just turned life into a proverb. I just killed it.”

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Giannina Braschi

Empire of Dreams (prose poetry, 1988)

“When the Twin Towers fell—I felt a dentist had pulled out my two front teeth. I could not laugh anymore. And I have the smile of a smiling damned villain. But I also felt the hole in my mouth became a garage, and entering that garage were terrorists in trucks full of explosives and French diplomats—to f*ck us more with other nations—to run over our dead bodies.”

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Giannina Braschi livre United States of Banana

United States of Banana (2011)

“If you want to know what love is, have a child. If you want to know what pain is, bury him.”

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Giannina Braschi livre Yo-Yo Boing!

Yo-Yo Boing! (Spanglish novel, 1998)

“Read me, read me. Love me, love.”

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Giannina Braschi

Empire of Dreams (prose poetry, 1988)

“This is a vicious circle. This is the fishmarket. This is working for survival. This is survival of the fastest. This is the Darwinist capital of the capitalist world. A head afraid is a head haunted. A head haunted is a head hunted. Run for your life. Run from the guillotine to a head hunter who saves your head and raises your salary—so you’ll be caught in the red of the fishmarket buying gadgets to distract your fragile imagination that is cut in the red market of blood—running and escaping—running again—changing your resume to update the fear you feel of being unemployed tomorrow—in the streets—and from there to welfare—and from there to begging.”

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Giannina Braschi livre United States of Banana

United States of Banana (2011)

“Not every pigeon is a rat with wings. Not every rat with wings is a dove of peace.”

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Giannina Braschi

“And besides, all languages are dialects that are made to break new grounds.”

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Giannina Braschi livre Yo-Yo Boing!

Yo-Yo Boing! (Spanglish novel, 1998)
Contexte: If I respected languages like you do, I wouldn't write at all. El muro de Berlín fue derribado. Why can't I do the same? Desde la torre de Babel, las lenguas han sido siempre una forma de divorciarnos del resto de la humanidad. Poetry must find ways of breaking distance. I'm not reducing my audience. On the contrary, I'm going to have a bigger audience with the common markets — in Europe — in America. And besides, all languages are dialects that are made to break new grounds. I feel like Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, and I even feel like Garcilaso forging a new language. Saludo al nuevo siglo, el siglo del nuevo lenguaje de América, y le digo adiós a la retórica separatista y a los atavismos.