In times of conflict, war, poverty or religious fundamentalism, women and children are the first and most numerous victims. Women need all their courage today. Isabel Allende More Quotes by Isabel Allende More Quotes From Isabel Allende After a few months without writing, months I've lived turned outward... I fear going deaf, not being able to hear the silence. Isabel Allende able silence writing Just as Daniel Balalcazar said, it makes no sense to suffer in advance a misfortune that may never occur. Isabel Allende suffering said may Until a few months ago we had a code of honor, and even the worst ruffians behaved with decency. You could leave your gold in a tent with no guard and no one would touch it, but now all that has changed. The law of the jungle rules, the only ideology is greed. Don't let yourself be parted from your weapons, and always travel in pairs or groups, because this is a land of thieves. Isabel Allende greed land law The most savory grape, the one that produces the wines with best texture and aroma, the sweetest and most generous, doesn't grow in rich soil but in stony land; the plant, with a mother's obstinacy, overcomes obstacles to thrust its roots deep into the ground and take advantage of every drop of water. That, my grandmother explained to me, is how flavors are concentrated in the grape. Isabel Allende wine roots mother If, for example, I saw my grandparents or my daughter for an instant, would I recognize them? Probably not, because in looking so hard for a way to keep them alive, remembering them in the most minimal details, I have been changing them, adorning them with qualities they may not have had. I have given them a destiny much more complex than the ones they lived. Isabel Allende grandparent destiny daughter Do you truly believe that life is fair, Senor de la Vega? -No, maestro, but I plan to do everything in my power to make it so. Isabel Allende maestro vegas believe Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. Isabel Allende calligraphy sea children Everyone is born with some special talent. Isabel Allende born talent special I'm living in California but I have a place that is mine in Chile and I belong there. I am no longer an exile. Isabel Allende exile chile california I've been a story-teller all my life but I realized it only recently. Isabel Allende i-realized stories We are too connected. There's noise in our heads all the time. Isabel Allende technology connected noise I am an American citizen and it is my home now. I like the USA, which is not a place too many people have liked since Bush. The US has a young population, and everything can change within a year. Isabel Allende home people years I have travelled all over the world and one thing that amazes me is that I can communicate with people. My story may be different but emotionally we are all the same. Isabel Allende may people world I don't think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be. Isabel Allende would-be people thinking I have more freedom when I write fiction, but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my readers. Somehow the 'message,' even if I am not even aware that there is one, is conveyed better in this form. Isabel Allende impact stronger writing I was a very bad journalist. Awful. I would just invent everything. If I did an interview, I had a preconception of what that person should say and I would put my words in his mouth. Isabel Allende awful interviews mouths I was not supposed to be in any way a liberated person. I was a female born in the '40s in a patriarchal family; I was supposed to marry and make everyone around me happy. Isabel Allende born female way I felt an unrelenting restlessness. It was the first time I had ever experienced jealousy, and that emotion clung to my skin day and night like a dark stain, a contamination I could not shed; it became so unbearable that when finally I rid myself of it, I was freed forever of the desire to possess another person or the temptation ever to belong to anyone. Isabel Allende dark forever night I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes. Isabel Allende self believe book I have seen these persons speak unthinkingly, not realizing that to speak is also to be. Word and gesture are man's thought. We should not speak without reason. Isabel Allende gestures realizing men
