You don’t want somebody who doesn’t know his own heart, do you? You’ll find someone who’s brave enough to love you. Someday. One day. Not today.
I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog.
Every book changes my writing because I’m always trying to do something I didn’t do before. I try to do what’s hard for me, what I haven’t done in the past.
I was silent as a child, and silenced as a young woman; I am taking my lumps and bumps for being a big mouth, now, but usually from those whose opinion I don’t respect.
Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.
There are many Latino writers as talented as I am, but because we are published through small presses, our books don’t count. We are still the illegal aliens of the literary world.
Perhaps the greatest challenge has been trying to keep my time to myself and my private life private in order to do my job. Everything that is most mine belongs to everyone now.
The truth has a strange way of following you, of coming up to you and making you listen to what it has to say.
I try to be as honest about what I see and to speak rather than be silent, especially if it means I can save lives, or serve humanity.
The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself. It’s like being blind. You aren’t less of a person, but you’re missing out on wonderful things.
Write about what makes you different.
And the nice thing about writing a novel is you take your time, you sit with the character sometimes nine years, you look very deeply at a situation, unlike in real life when we just kind of snap something out.
I usually say Latina, Mexican-American or American Mexican, and in certain contexts, Chicana, depending on whether my audience understands the term or not.
The older I get, the more I’m conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made up of tiny matters, isn’t it?
You’ll change. You’ll see. Wait till you meet Mr. Right.
I feel comfortable in Spanish, I chat like a parrot, but I don’t have the confidence in Spanish that I do in English.
Heartbreak makes us stronger; it’s an opportunity for spiritual growth. How can you understand someone else’s pain if you have not yourself suffered?
I have to say that the traditional role is kind of a myth. I think the traditional Mexican woman is a fierce woman.
I’m filled with a new joy mixed with old grief.
Like all guests, after a fortnight, grief is best beyond the door.