One of the books that has guided me in the last ten years of my life to help me to be that leader is the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace. He's a Vietnamese monk. He was nominated for a Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King. Sandra Cisneros More Quotes by Sandra Cisneros More Quotes From Sandra Cisneros The truth has a strange way of following you, of coming up to you and making you listen to what it has to say. Sandra Cisneros up-to-youstrangeway You can never have too much sky . You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad. Here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful. Still, we take what we can get and make the best of it. Sandra Cisneros flowerbeautifulfall 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. Sandra Cisneros latinawritinggiving Heartbreak makes us stronger; it's an opportunity for spiritual growth. How can you understand someone else's pain if you have not yourself suffered? Sandra Cisneros painspiritualopportunity Books are medicine and you have to take the right medicine that you need at that moment or that day or that time in your life. Sandra Cisneros medicinebookneeds I believe love is always eternal. Even if eternity is only five minutes. Sandra Cisneros eternitylovebelieve What you're going to be asked to do is bigger than what you think you can do. It's always bigger than what you think you can handle, but you're never going to be given something you can't handle. Sandra Cisneros biggergiventhinking True love in Mexico isn't between lovers; it's between a parent and a child. Mexico is a very intense culture of sons adoring their mothers, and this is why I claim that Mexican culture is matriarchal. Because the one constant, faithful, inviolable, holy love of loves - the love of your life - is not your wife or your lover; it's your mother. Sandra Cisneros motherchildrenson One of the things Thich Nhat Hanh taught me: he says, "When you're in a hurry, go slower." That works every time, unless you're trying to catch a plane. Sandra Cisneros planestaughttrying 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. Sandra Cisneros humanitytryingmean 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. Sandra Cisneros motherwritingart I don't just want to talk to the choir. I want to sit down and be respectful of the people who are most unlike me, to get them to hear me and think. It doesn't mean you're going to change them right there, but just so they can hear you and what you're saying. Sandra Cisneros meanpeoplethinking I do travel a lot, because I need oxygen, I need to go to places to meet people who aren't upset at me because I'm asking for peace. Sandra Cisneros upsetoxygenpeople Well, when you're an immigrant writer, or an immigrant, you're not always welcome to this country unless you're the right immigrant. If you have a Mexican accent, people look at you like, you know, where do you come from and why don't you go back to where you came from? So, even though I was born in the United States, I never felt at home in the United States. I never felt at home until I moved to the Southwest, where, you know, there's a mix of my culture with the U.S. culture, and that was why I lived in Texas for 25 years. Sandra Cisneros texashomecountry Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within. Sandra Cisneros compassionrevengethinking 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. Sandra Cisneros bullyingbumpschildren The older you get, the more power you have with language as a writer, which means that you have to be extra responsible for what you say, whether it's in print or in front of a microphone, because those words can go out and kill or go out and plant seeds for peace. Sandra Cisneros plantlanguagemean I have to get my will in order. I have to get the Macondo Foundation going. I want to invest the money and resources that I've gotten from working so hard so that it's shared and it has its life beyond me. Sandra Cisneros foundationwantorder When I was at home, I wasn't shy. I was the clown at home, because I was loved. It was in the outside world that I was judged and I wasn't loved. That was very clear to me, that I wasn't loved. So I became very quiet. You know, those little girls you see in those pictures that look like they want to hunch, I was trying to disappear into my shoulder blades. The quietest person in the classroom, that was me. But that wasn't me at home. Sandra Cisneros girlhometrying I can get by and chatter and talk and tell funny stories, make people laugh, but I don't have as many words, I don't have the vocabulary. I think if I forced myself to read in Spanish - you know, I always say I'm going to, but I lose my patience reading in Spanish, because I really do read the way a third grader does, mouthing the words. That takes a long time! Sandra Cisneros vocabularyreadingthinking
