Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I would drive on streets that were one-way and think, "Why are they all honking at me?"
One way to get very humble is to dedicate the work you're going to do to your community.
I hope I'm not just looked as a writer that is popular but as a writer of literary value.
There's all kinds of ways to wean yourself off of sugar - because it is like an addiction.
For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don't need a room of your own, you need a house.
To me, the Virgen de Guadalupe is just a vessel for me to recognize my own God within myself.
Sometimes hearing the stories is going to change people's lives much more than if they read it.
The most powerful speaking you can do is the speaking that comes from your heart and your love.
When your writing is unselfconscious, when it comes from your heart, that's when it's powerful.
I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate
I wasn't aware that 'House on Mango Street' was so influenced by Spanish until after I finished.
Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in
You have to remember that writing itself is so solitary. You start writing because you're lonely.
I grew up with this kind of grocery store that caters to the poor. They serve you the worst food.
The experience taught me to be present in the real Buddhist sense of paying attention to the moment.
I've been on television saying, "¡Vamos a la biblioteca!". That was great. Nobody had ever asked me.
That's why it's important to be multilingual, because it teaches you so much about your own language.
Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.
My mom was a frustrated woman, like so many unhappy women who didn't get the opportunities they wanted.
Even if we don't know if God exists, we can be certain love exists, because its power transcends death.
One press account said I was an overnight success. I thought that was the longest night I've ever spent.
Each book gets harder, each book gets harder and harder. I always feel like crying when I have to write.
I think there's some great stuff coming. I do feel that. I think we have reached our Harlem Renaissance.
I think people should read fairy tales, because were hungry for a mythology that will speak to our fears.
I wish somebody had told me love does not die, that we can continue to receive and give love after death.
I think people should read fairy tales, because we're hungry for a mythology that will speak to our fears.
All of my work is influenced by fairy tales, and I hope my work shows Hans Christian Anderson's influence.
I prefer to go to the little towns now, because in little towns people are kind. I like going to Tepotzlán.
To tell you the truth, I think it's about that we shouldn't get our driver's licenses till real late in life.
The border between the dead and the living, if you're Mexican, doesn't exist. The dead are part of your life.
My father always defined my gender to my brothers. He'd say, 'This is your sister; you must take care of her.'
The truth has a strange way of following you, of coming up to you and making you listen to what it has to say.
Even though it's hard to believe, but people who know me really well know I'm shy. I have to go past that fear.
The beauty of literature is you allow readers to see things through other peoples eyes. All good books do this.
When I was very young I was reading a lot of Latin American fiction, which later would be called "boom fiction."
I learn through listening and watching other performers that are very good, like Denise Chávez, Dorothy Allison.
I was reading all these male writers who were doing wild and wonderful things. It gave me permission to experiment.
Some people need flowers, some people need dandelions. It's medicine, it's what you need at that time in your life.
I have to say that the traditional role is kind of a myth. I think the traditional Mexican woman is a fierce woman.
I think no matter what you do you can't please everybody. You have to ask yourself, "Did I do what I set out to do?"
I feel comfortable in Spanish, I chat like a parrot, but I don't have the confidence in Spanish that I do in English.
I don't really think our government at heart wants peace. So I urge you, write to Mrs. Laura Bush, because she reads.
The stories are what no one wants to talk about. So you make up a story because no one is going to tell you the truth.
I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me.
You know, you want to be outrageous when you're young, so all the young people say, "Oooh . . ." Now my tactics are different.
I feel the fear touches on something deeper. A sense perhaps of, "My life is speeding past me and I can't get a handle on it."
Books are medicine and you have to take the right medicine that you need at that moment or that day or that time in your life.
If you know two cultures and two languages, that intermediate place, where the two don't perfectly meet, is really interesting.
That's what you need for your writing - to learn how to be present, learn how to be calm. So take that nap, do that meditation.
I'm just as unhappy about San Antonio as I was about Chicago. If you're unhappy about certain things, you're unhappy everywhere.