Caryl Phillips (13th March 1958) is a Kittitian- British novelist and playwright, best known for his award winning novels. His work often focuses on the experiences of people of the African diaspora in England, the Caribbean, and the USA. As well as writing, Phillips has worked as an academic at various institutions including Amherst College, and Yale University, where he has held the position of Professor of English since 2005.
To date, Caryl Phillips has written more than a dozen novels, historical fiction and plays. Today we’re going to bring attention to some of those works with some quotes and the books they come from.
“Sometimes I can be walking down the street, or riding a bus, and suddenly I see somebody who remind me of somebody I know back home, and I close my eyes and find myself thinking of the sea, or the taste of grafted mango, or the smell of saltfish frying, and then I come back to myself and open my eyes and realise where I am.”
― Caryl Phillips, In the Falling Snow
“Their hearts began to swell with the pity that one feels for a fellow being who has lost both his way and his sense of purpose.”
― Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River
“I am grateful, and would thank the Gods(if there were any to thank) that I have finally mastered this art of forgetting–of murdering the memory.”
― Caryl Phillips, Higher Ground
“The light on her face was a lesson, a book that she hoped he would want to read, but he looked away from her…she did not want this man to leave her alone. He was kind. And she feared the loneliness of dreaming”
― Caryl Phillips, Higher Ground
“When I walk into a bookshop I don’t know if I’m going to be in British Literature, or if there’s going to be a section called Black Literature and I’m going to be there. Or sometimes they have a section called Caribbean Literature. And then, if they don’t look at my picture, they might think I’m a woman, and I might be in Women’s Literature.”
― Caryl Phillips, Interview with the Daily Telegraph
Birmingham Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah dies, aged 65
Top Authors Join Legal Battle Against OpenAI for Mass Copyright Infringement
Literary Icon, Cormac McCarthy has died
The Literary World Mourns Martin Amis
