Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Jerome Hijueloswas an American novelist of Cuban descent. During a year-long convalescence from a childhood illness spent in a Connecticut hospital he lost his knowledge of Spanish, his parents' native language. He was educated in New York City, and wrote short stories and advertising copy...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1951
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
kids onward people
People in their forties, fifties, and onward enjoy the whole world of books in a different way than the Internet-age kids do.
catholic churches equivalent filled hear nightclubs people stuff
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.
eternally latins supposed symbols
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.
college enjoy fascinated gospel listening love music poetry rap rock soul stations taking urban
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.
fit
As a kid I had all kinds of questions about how I fit it with my neighborhood and friends and other Latinos.
lack twenty
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.
factual hopefully invent pack pertinent possible relevance sort whereas
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.
call novel work
When you're writing a novel - at least the way I write is I work from what I would call 'emotional atmosphere,' ambiance to ambiance.