Junot Diaz on how love and writing about love reveals us

I never wanted to love or write about love, thought it was sissy stuff, girly stuff, not serious and not strong, and Junot Díaz shows how it is done:

"Love reveals us. Profoundly and unnervingly, love reveals us. I think this is something that can often be a source of comfort and dismay. Most of us are not used to being naked. And I can’t speak to the world, but that first time you disrobe—the first time you disrobe before someone you care about—shrinks in comparison to the first time you begin to unveil your internal self. What I think of the stories that I was overwhelmed by growing up, that astonished me growing up, I think they always drew upon that notion of how we are revealed in love."

"Sometimes the right choice is also the hardest choice. Often, most of us choose for safety. I think it is easier to go to Mordor bearing the ring of the enemy than to advance into the unknown wilderness of another person’s heart."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/9/13/15-Q-junot-diaz/