(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Jamaica Kincaid

“That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain. For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. Every native everywhere lives a life of overwhelming and crushing banality and boredom and desperation and depression, and every deed, good and bad, is an attempt to forget this. Every native would like to find a way out, every native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But some natives—most natives in the world—cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go—so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself.”

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Read more quotes from Jamaica Kincaid


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!

64 likes
All Members Who Liked This Quote



This Quote Is From

A Small Place A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
17,695 ratings, average rating, 2,001 reviews
Open Preview

Browse By Tag