I’m not saying I’m not bad. I’m not saying I’m special. But I’m not like the Allport Street girls, who stand in doorways and go with men into alleys.All I know is I didn’t want...

I have to understand what my strengths and limitations are, and work from a true place. I try to do this as best I can while still protecting my writer self, which more than ever...

Well, I’m Buddhist, Ray, and so part of my Buddhism has allowed me to look a little more deeply at people and the events in my life that created me. And I think a lot...

At the time I was writing it, it started as my own memoirs but transformed into a piece of fiction. All the emotions are mine, the setting is mine, the house is mine. But the...

I realize that when I moved out of my father’s house I shocked and frightened him because I needed a room of my own, a space of my own to reinvent myself.

We’re going to right the world and live. I mean live our lives the way lives were meant to be lived. With the throat and wrists. With rage and desire, and joy and grief, and...

I’m thrilled. It’s gratifying to me, because I love this literature. And if we can do something to stimulate people to love literature as passionately as I do, that can only be good for the...

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.

I get so excited when I see these writers because they’re extraordinary, award-winning writers that are here. To gather them and put them in one forum could only raise the bar and make San Antonio...

I usually say Latina, Mexican-American or American Mexican, and in certain contexts, Chicana, depending on whether my audience understands the term or not.

These stories celebrate what’s at the heart of so many Latino success stories — a desire to achieve and make a difference, … Visitors to this Smithsonian exhibit will have the opportunity to learn about...

I was raised in Chicago, so always used Latina. It’s what my Father and brothers called ourselves, when we meant the entire Spanish-speaking community of Chicago.

Once you tell a man he’s pretty, there’s no taking it back. They think they’re pretty all the time, and I suppose, in a way, they are. It’s got to do with believing it.

The beauty of literature is you allow readers to see things through other people’s eyes. All good books do this.

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.

Seems like the world is spinning smooth without a bump or squeak except when love comes in. Then the whole machine just quits like a loud load of wash on imbalance–the buzzer singing to high...

If I have to get off the stage, don’t take it personally.

I’m afraid I’m still trying to find that balance. Especially now that everyone wants a piece of me. I find that I have to become more and more reclusive, and pick and choose when I...

Everywhere I go, it’s me and me. Half of me living my life, the other half watching me live it.

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...

Mexico is only a memory of childhood safety.

Okay, we didn’t work, and allmemories to tell you the truth aren’t good.But sometimes there were good times.Love was good. I loved your crooked sleepbeside me and never dreamed afraid.There should be stars for great...

But I deal with this meditating and by understanding I’ve been put on the planet to serve humanity. I have to remind myself to live simply and not to overindulge, which is a constant battle...

My feminism is humanism, with the weakest being those who I represent, and that includes many beings and life forms, including some men.

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and...

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...

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 good 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 don’t see any kind of mirror of power, male power, that is, as a form of liberation. I don’t believe in an eye for an eye. I don’t believe this is truly freedom.

Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.

Sometimes I feel I can’t quite master my written and spoken Spanish, because I’m too much a student of English. I would need another lifetime to learn it.