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 More Quotes by Sandra Cisneros More Quotes From Sandra Cisneros I realize that when I moved out of my father’s house I shocked and frightened him because I needed a room of my own, a space of my own to reinvent myself. Sandra Cisneros space house father Everything is holding its breath inside me. Everything is waiting to explode like Christmas. I want to be all new and shiny. I want to sit out bad at night, a boy around my neck and the wind under my skirt. Not this way, every evening talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I can't see. Sandra Cisneros talking night boys The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself. It's like being blind. You aren't less of a person, but you're missing out on wonderful things. Sandra Cisneros language speak missing Everything that is most mine belongs to everyone now. Sandra Cisneros mines How can art make a difference in the world? Sandra Cisneros making-a-difference differences art God made men by baking them in an oven, but he forgot about the first batch, and that's how Black people were born. And then he was so anxious about the next batch, he took them out of the oven too soon, so that's how White people were made. But the third batch he let cook until they were golden-golden-golden, and, honey, that's you and me. Sandra Cisneros white men people Generally if you're a daughter in a Mexican family, no one wants to tell you anything; they tell you the healthy lies about your family. Sandra Cisneros mexican daughter lying This is the age of fear and so many of us feel afraid to speak out about what has happened to our lives in the wake of 9/11. Television promotes the world as a scary place for the United States and this justifies peeling away every element of privacy we had before. The media is monopolized so we don't even hear a lot of dissent about this new era. Sandra Cisneros speaks-out media scary You'll change. You'll see. Wait till you meet Mr. Right. Sandra Cisneros mr-right waiting I don't know what the definition of a short story is, and I don't even care to answer that question. That's something somebody in academia would think about. I just want to tell a story, and if people listen, and if it stays with you, it's a story. Sandra Cisneros want people thinking Every writer I admire is my teacher. If you look at it, and if you care to read carefully enough and to read and reread a text, you teach yourself something about craft. Sandra Cisneros crafts teacher looks I was raised in Chicago, so always used Latina. It's what my Father and brothers called ourselves, when we meant the entire Spanish-speaking community of Chicago. Sandra Cisneros community brother father 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. Sandra Cisneros nonfiction female historical Sometimes hearing the stories is going to change people's lives much more than if they read it. Sandra Cisneros hearing stories people I'm learning a lot by reading teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron. They teach me because I feel like I have a responsibility to the communities that I speak to. Sandra Cisneros reading responsibility teacher The Mexico - United States border was always porous. People have been going and coming back since before the Spaniards arrived. Now we're seeing communities who have family members on the other side very frightened. I feel saddened for those families divided by violence. The whole border area is under siege. Sandra Cisneros mexico community people I don't close myself to the possibility of someplace outside the United States, but it would have to be someplace with an indigenous community, because that's where I feel at home. Sandra Cisneros united-states community home Imagine Americans who go to Paris. Why would you want to go where someone's going to disparage you? Why would you go anywhere where they treat you bad? Well, that's how it is for us to go to Mexico. You have to be on your guard, because I think the Mexicans are harder on the Mexicans, the Mexican-Americans. They don't see us as Mexican. I think part of it's a class issue and a color issue. We're more connected to their servants, so what are we doing staying at a nice hotel? There's a kind of shame. Sandra Cisneros nice color thinking I live in a town that's two and a half hours from the border. I know people who have lived in San Antonio for generations, sometimes seven generations, their families are from there, and they are of Mexican descent, and they've never gone farther than the border. Sandra Cisneros mexican two people I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me. Sandra Cisneros mexico want writing
