No matter how successful a relationship may be, both sexually and emotionally, the lack of money can hamper and undermine, little by little, even the greatest passion. Laura Esquivel More Quotes by Laura Esquivel More Quotes From Laura Esquivel Gertrudis got on her horse and rode away. She wasn't riding alone--she carried her childhood beside her, in the cream fritters she had enclosed in a jar in her saddlebag Laura Esquivel riding childhood horse Take care to chop the onion fine. Laura Esquivel onions cooking food I like vibrant colors. Laura Esquivel vibrant-colors color When you're told there's no way you can marry the woman you love and your only hope of being near her is to marry her sister, wouldn't you do the same? Laura Esquivel heartbreaking way Cooking is one of the strongest ceremonies for life. When recipes are put together, the kitchen is a chemical laboratory involving air, fire, water and the earth. This is what gives value to humans and elevates their spiritual qualities. If you take a frozen box and stick it in the microwave, you become connected to the factory. Laura Esquivel you fire water life Technology and industry have distanced people from nature and magic and human values. Laura Esquivel magic technology nature people The kitchen is where we deal with the elements of the universe. It is where we come to understand our past and ourselves. Laura Esquivel understand kitchen universe past Many people think spending an hour or two in the kitchen is a waste of time. But it is a good investment in your spiritual development. Laura Esquivel good spiritual time people I am always interested in that relationship between outer reality and inner desire, and I think it is important to pay attention to the inner voice because it is the only way to discover your mission in life and the only way to develop the strength to break with whatever familial or cultural norms are preventing you from fulfilling your destiny. Laura Esquivel i-am strength relationship life It wasn't books that inspired me to write. For me, inspiration was simple, immediate: I got it from eating, dancing, talking. I got it from life lived, things touched, from sensuality, from love of life, from our irrefutable connection to the earth. Laura Esquivel me simple love life I acknowledge the four elements. Water in the North; incense to recognize the air in the East; flowers for the earth in the South; a candle for light from the West. It helps me keep perspective. Laura Esquivel me perspective light water The only way we'll know where we're going is to look at the past and to remember who we were through ceremonies and rituals. Laura Esquivel look remember way past I grew up in a modern home, but my grandmother lived across the street in an old house that was built when churches were illegal in Mexico. She had a chapel in the home, right between the kitchen and dining room. Laura Esquivel street kitchen house home Progress makes us lose the feeling of a ceremony that cooking should have. It has significantly shifted our values so that now it seems to us that only activities with an economic reward are worth pursuing. Laura Esquivel lose feeling progress cooking We must adjust our value systems and work to modify today's societies, in which economic interests are carried to the extreme and irrationally produce not merely objects, but weapons of war. These societies don't care about the destruction of the planet and mankind as long as they earn profits - it can't go on like this. Laura Esquivel work today war long You'll have to forgive me this boldness, but I think women are very fortunate that men exist! The gods are very wise and certainly knew what they were doing. They created the sun and the moon, light and darkness, the eagle and the serpent, all for the same reason. They are perfect complements and the mechanism we use to reach heaven. Laura Esquivel me women light darkness What others call magic realism is normal and an everyday thing to me. Laura Esquivel others me magic everyday I was pretty much a hippie. I was a vegetarian, gypsy-like. I liked to meditate, and it's curious because I was very much attracted to the possibility of change. Laura Esquivel pretty curious vegetarian change We're in a period of revolutionary change. I'm optimistic. One's self changes, and then the world changes. It's going to begin internally, not externally. Laura Esquivel changes change self world Destiny has always been something that interested me as a subject, but not in a fatalistic way because I believe that one can transform destiny through self-knowledge. Laura Esquivel me destiny believe way