Sandra Cisneros

“In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness. It means waiting. It is like the number nine, a muddy color.”

“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.”

“I grew up listening to the Beatles and being an ardent Beatles fan when I was in third grade all the way to adulthood, and listening to all kinds of music that came to us either at the flea market or in our living rooms or on the 'Ed Sullivan' show - all these places we were influenced by.”

“The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself.”

“For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don't need a room of your own, you need a house.”

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

“I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists.”

“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.”

“I liked the books I read that said things like 'I shan't'. I would try to find a way to say in my life, to reply, 'I shan't do that, mother.' That was so far away from my barrio world.”

“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?”

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

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

“One of my favorite writers is Hans Christian Anderson. His stories speak to the times.”

“My father always defined my gender to my brothers. He'd say, 'This is your sister; you must take care of her.'”

“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.”

“Mexico is only a memory of childhood safety.”

“I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.”

“I wasn't aware that 'House on Mango Street' was so influenced by Spanish until after I finished.”

“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 it like that. Not against the bricks or hunkering in somebody's car. I wanted it come undone like gold thread, like a tent full of birds.”

“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 needs privacy.”