Quotes by Trinidadian Authors

Don't pretend like you know me 'cause you shook some neighborhood tree and got a li'l rotten fruit.
Lauren Francis-Sharma
being well and well being is my way of life
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
The city had been built by people from innumerable elsewheres. It was a chaos of cultures ordered only by its long streets. It belonged to no one and never would, or maybe it was a million cities in one, unique to each of its inhabitants, belonging to whoever walked its streets.
André Alexis
Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom?
Hazel Scott
I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.
William J. Locke
There's a time when you have to explain to your children why they were born and it's a marvelous thing if you know the reason by then.
Hazel Scott
Bad people? What kind of bad people? Members of the Church of Satan? Insurance salesmen? People who don’t speak English?
Wayne Gerard Trotman
It was not boring, said Majnoun, but it was strange. The people were always looking away to where you couldn't see. The whole time, I thought there was something coming. Then at the end, it was death that came.
André Alexis
Many critics are born of envy.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
I've decided I don't like books that end with 'The End'. The fact that there are no more pages, suggests to me that the book has ended.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
I don't like zombie movies, they're just plain silly.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
She silenced her pain this time and listened to his.
Aliyyah Eniath
True friends—those that want nothing for you but peace, harmony, and joy—sometimes more than you want it for yourself—will rise to the surface. Those are the ones to listen to and commune with. You will know their voice because it’s authentic as well, and it speaks with no ulterior motives or projections. It may not tell you pretty things, but it will always speak in love.
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
Authenticity is about returning and magnifying who you are, instead of trying to become someone who you think you should be. It’s about peeling off the false adornments and standing wholly, holy, and true.
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
For years and years, even during the time of my first visit in 1962, it has been said that Calcutta was dying, that its port was silting up, its antiquated industry declining, but Calcutta hadn't died. It hadn't done much, but it had gone on; and it had begun to appear that the prophecy has been excessive. Now it occurred to me that perhaps this was what happened when cities died. They don't die with a bang; they didn't die only when they were abandoned. Perhaps, they died like this: when everybody was suffering, when transport was so hard that working people gave up jobs they needed because the fear the suffering of the travel; When no one had clean water or air; No one could go walking. Perhaps city died when they lost amenities that cities provided, the visual excitement, the heightened sense of human possibility, and became simply places where there were too many people, and people suffered.
V.S. Naipaul
Confronting a liar makes a better liar.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
The patience and forbearance of the poor are among the strongest bulwarks of the rich.
C.L.R. James
When people speak, listen carefully and pay particular attention to what they are not saying.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
We do not know the future, but we are creating it now. How we align the vision we have for a livable place with intelligent actions is what the future of mankind will be. It is all we can do to perfect ourselves. Nature will determine the rest.
Helen Drayton
It was all written. When life is going to be breathed into you, and when it's going to be taken away. Each person's mission on earth is pre-planned.
Aliyyah Eniath
The chaos lies all within.
V.S. Naipaul
I appreciated art, long before I could produce it.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
It is impossible to be truly artistic without the risk of offending someone somewhere.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Contentment comes from wanting what we need, not needing what we want.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Uninhibited, they wallowed with zest in the filth and mire of their political conceptions and needs, among the very leaders of their society, but nevertheless the very dregs of human civilisation and moral standards. A historian who finds excuses for such conduct by references to the supposed spirit of the times, or by omission, or by silence, shows thereby that his account of events is not to be trusted.
C.L.R. James
Whosoever possesses a camera should never know boredom.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
The more you care, the more you fear.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
You can't find "it" out there
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
Don't let anything be too much for you
Claudia Pegus
Envy yearns to find flaws.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Envy suggests inferiority.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Laughter is much better than anger.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Water - a thoroughly underrated drink.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
You’ve been smoking again, haven’t you? Your eyes look like road maps and you’re in full bastard mode.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Fame is the worst pain known to man. It’s stronger than heroin.
Nicki Minaj
Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.
V.S. Naipaul
Instead of loving people and using money, people often love money and use people.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Verily, there is no dishonor in death at the hands of a far superior enemy.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Revenge can only be found on the road to self-destruction.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
If your romance is dying, perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
You could never understand why I grind like I doMakiyah & Jalani why I grind like I do
Nicki Minaj
Deception and privileged secrets are common facets of politics.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
It's quite sad that so many children go through life unsure whether their parents love them or not.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Certain emotions bridge the years and link unlikely places.
V.S. Naipaul
To whomever is writing this book, what do you want from me? I need to know my calling. Why was I chosen? Why not Lee? Why not Susan March? Why me? What is my purpose? Please let it be more than to destroy a life and embarrass another. I need to know. I am suffering. You are a constant headache. Anywhere I go, I can hear you, I can feel you. I want to be like the others, ignorant of this.
Kevin Jared Hosein
Tools of empowerment - heartset and mindset.
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
Cowards never dare to love.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
The group of people in front of her was jovial and paid her no attention. The group behind was much the same. She was alone without being alone.
André Alexis
Blaming has no positive effect at all
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
The sad truth about bigotry is that most bigots either don't realize that they are bigots, or they convince themselves that their bigotry is perfectly justified.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
White liberals are always saying, "What can we do?” I mean, they’re always coming to help black people. I thought of an analogy. If you were walking down the street and a man had a gun on another man – let’s say both of them were white – and you had to help somebody, whom would you help? It’s obvious to me that if I were walking down the street, and a man had a gun on another man, and I was going to help, I’d help the man who didn’t have the gun, if the man who had the fun was just pulling the gun on the other man for no apparent reason – if he was just going to rob him or shoot him because he didn’t like him. The only way I could help is either to get a gun and shoot the man with the gun, or take the gun away from him – join the fellow who doesn’t have a gun and both of us gang up on the man with the gun. But white liberals never do that. When the man has the gun, they walk around him and they come to the victim, and they say “Let me help you,” and what they mean is “help you adjust to the situation with the man who has the gun on you."If indeed white liberals are going to help, their only job is to get the gun from the man and talk to him, because he is a sick man. The black man is not the sick man, it is the white man who is sick, he’s the one who picked up the gun.
Stokely Carmichael
Racism is a common delusion, a mental illness that can be cured with truthful education.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
V.S. Naipaul
As a teacher, his task was not to make policy but to follow the policy made by the Department.
Earl Lovelace
Dr. King's policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.
Stokely Carmichael
Love is a rare and precious thing. Squander it at your peril.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Why are you here? To shine... just shine
Akosua Dardaine Edwards
Thought is more dangerous than you think.
Wayne Gerard Trotman
You ain’t old yet but when you get old, all the women in the village start to look down on you when they find out you want to do something other than sweep the kitchen or cut up vegetables. Had this big starch mango tree when I was small. Anytime I set myself to climb it, there was always a woman passing by to yell at me and tell me to get down. Asked me why I leaving my poor mother to do all the housework. I never got to the top. It was like God was always watching, ready to send another hag to tell me down. Then, one day, they cut down the tree.
Kevin Jared Hosein
Change. Adapt. Bend so as not to be broken. Let opportunity guide your actions.
Wayne Gerard Trotman