Instead of putting cheese with ranchero sauce, chile is really very good for you. If you put that in, you get flavoring, so you're not eating bland food, especially if you're used to spicy food. Sandra Cisneros More Quotes by Sandra Cisneros More Quotes From Sandra Cisneros You meditate and then you can put on your pajamas, or you can imagine you're wearing your pajamas, and you talk about your piece of writing in the language you would use if you were wearing your pajamas and you were seated at a table with your very good friend. And you wouldn't have to get all dressed up or clean up the table. Sandra Cisneros good-friend use writing You know how sometimes you're talking to people who love you and give you unconditional love, and you say, "But you know what? Let me back up. I forgot to say . . ."You can do that, right? You don't hesitate and say, "Oh my God! I forgot to say that!". You just speak! And you say it all, until you have nothing more to say. And that's your first draft. It's done. Sandra Cisneros unconditional-love love-you talking When you edit, you imagine your enemy is seated on the other side of the table. Your enemy! And your enemy is going to read that with a viciousness, because he knows where you didn't work on it. He's going to shake it and really aim for that jugular. So you are going to polish, and revise, and rewrite, and cut out, and shape it, so that your enemy has no place to grip it. That's how you revise. Sandra Cisneros cutting shapes enemy You want to be able to say anything when you do your first draft, because some of that goofy stuff that you think has nothing to do with it is probably where the mother lode is. Sandra Cisneros mother say-anything thinking The experience taught me to be present in the real Buddhist sense of paying attention to the moment. Sandra Cisneros buddhist real attention Every single house has had death visit. Sandra Cisneros house We have all this courage as writers, but then there's this fear. Sandra Cisneros It's what's available to the poor communities. They do buy healthy stuff, you know, but the lettuce is usually iceberg lettuce and to get any taste, they have to use all that ranch dressing. Sandra Cisneros healthy community use There's all kinds of ways to wean yourself off of sugar - because it is like an addiction. Sandra Cisneros sugar addiction way So how are you supposed to learn how to drive with this guy yapping at you? My brothers were the ones who got to practice. So when you have to get on the expressway, you're afraid. That's what I think. That's why I take back routes on two-lane highways. Sandra Cisneros brother practice thinking I know the American Library Association has models for working with the poor. They do have that, and I think that we really need to put our efforts - if we want to think long-range and invest in the community so that we don't have to, you know, invest in prisons - into making a change, because I know that the library can make a change in a life, because it made a change in mine. Sandra Cisneros effort long thinking I had a mother who walked to the library with me, and you can't walk to a lot of libraries in San Antonio because - guess what? - there are no sidewalks, except in the neighborhoods. And they're across big boulevards, and it's so hot, you can't even walk to the corner. So things like that affect how children can get to libraries. So there are a lot of things involved. Sandra Cisneros library mother children My Spanish is a daughter's Spanish. I write, but my Spanish really is very limited. Sandra Cisneros daughter writing I was very lucky. I don't know German, or Dutch, or Chinese, or Thai. I don't know them, so I can't judge, so I have to go on the word of the publisher that it's a good translation. Sandra Cisneros chinese judging goes-on Mexicans don't think of ghosts as haunting you. Sandra Cisneros haunting ghost thinking I realize that it's like spices in the kitchen. I need that turmeric. I'm sorry, but cinnamon isn't going to substitute . I feel that I can teach my listener about a new word they can use too. "Well, what words are part of my own community, even if I'm monolingual, that I'm not allowing myself to use in a public sphere?" Sandra Cisneros kitchen community sorry I want to thank you, especially those people who are agnostic or atheist. I don't mean any offense by the things I said of the spirit world. Thank you for allowing me to speak about the spiritual, because I can't talk about my life or writing without mentioning that. Sandra Cisneros atheist spiritual mean I feel that I can teach my listener about a new word they can use too. Sandra Cisneros teach use feels You have to remember that writing itself is so solitary. You start writing because you're lonely. Sandra Cisneros lonely writing remember There was a time when I used to go to Mexico every year. But then Mexico changed a lot - between 1995 and 2005, Mexico changed a lot. Sandra Cisneros mexico used years
