When I was writing Caramelo the last couple of years, a sixty-hour work week was normal. And now I'm lucky if I have eight hours. Sandra Cisneros More Quotes by Sandra Cisneros More Quotes From Sandra Cisneros One way to get very humble is to dedicate the work you're going to do to your community. And by community I mean that community you have a special vision for, that only you see, that no one else in a room sees. That special community in pain, that through a pain you've suffered, you're able to have that vision, that super-ray vision. Sandra Cisneros painhumblemean I learned from the Macarturos. I had never been at a table with a labor organizer and a playwright and a performance artist and an anthropologist and a human rights lawyer. Usually at most gatherings, it's all writers. But suddenly I was at a table with all these different people and I learned from each of them, learned from the work they're doing, learned new ways to solve my problems. Sandra Cisneros artistrightspeople I was interested in cross-pollinating the two. I thought there was something lovely in the little vignette forms. I wanted to explore that. Sandra Cisneros vignetteslovelytwo I never paid attention when people said, "That's gotta be poetry. That's gotta be fiction," except when I was in a graduate program, and you had to claim your genre. Sandra Cisneros attentionpeoplefiction We changed it to emocionó, the way you say in Spanish, "to emotion me" [to be moved]. That, as opposed to "haunt." We wanted the feeling of sadness and grief and obsession, so we used emocionó. Sandra Cisneros sadnessgrieffeelings There [DreamTigers by Jorge Luis Borges] were these little fablesque things, you know, dream tigers, beautiful, beautiful pieces that when you read them had the power of a long piece, but they were prose, and they had the power of poetry, in that the last line wasn't the end, it was a reverberation, like when you tap on a glass made of crystal, and it goes ping. Sandra Cisneros glassesdreambeautiful I remember I was very taken with a book called DreamTigers by [Jorge Luis] Borges. He was at the University of Texas, Austin, and they collected some of his writings and put them in a little collection. It's called DreamTigers in English, but it doesn't exist in Spanish. It's a little sampler. But that collection in English is what struck me, because in there he has his poems, and I was a poet as well as a fiction writer. Sandra Cisneros takenwritingbook The good thing about Dennis [ Mathis] is, even though he's a white, he respected that I was doing something quirky with my English. He loved it when I would mix up the Americanisms and say, "That's water over the dam." Sandra Cisneros quirkywhitewater My friend, Dennis Mathis, was reading Eastern European and Japanese experimental writers, and I brought the Latin American writers to his attention, so we exchanged books and bounced off one another. Sandra Cisneros readinglatinbook Believe it or not, Mexican cooking, for those of you who have not gone farther south than Taco Bell, uses a lot of vegetables. But those vegetables were not brought here, like corn mushrooms, huitlacoche, or squash blossoms. Sandra Cisneros mushroomsvegetablesbelieve If you're going to write about the river, you've got to get in. Sandra Cisneros ifswritingrivers I know the books that I need to help me to be wiser than my years and be kinder and more compassionate and more patient than I really am. Sandra Cisneros bookyearsneeds When I say what I'm reading, this is what I need. I know the ills that plague me. Sandra Cisneros plaguereadingneeds You know how women have this clock when they want to have a baby? I had this clock where I wanted to win a national award by thirty, be at a big press by thirty-five. I was always working with these self-driven goals. Sandra Cisneros awardswinningbaby I don't think I'll write a large novel again because it was like being in jail for me. Even though that's the funniest book I've ever written, it was the saddest period of my life. Sandra Cisneros writingbookthinking 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 buddhistkingsbook [Thich Nhat Hanh] the one that revolutionized Buddhism. Instead of being monks just engaged in meditation, it was active Buddhism. You went out and felt the ills of the community around you. Instead of retreating to a monastery, you were out in the streets working. And he's been a great help to me, just reading his book, so I don't feel helpless about what I can do about all the violence around me. Sandra Cisneros buddhismreadingbook My idea was always to start with a small press and then move up to a national press. I had those goals for my career from the time I was a very young woman. I wanted to win a local award, then I wanted a state or national award. Small press, big press. Some women fantasize about their weddings, their husbands, and children. I fantasized about what I wanted to accomplish with my books. Sandra Cisneros husbandbookchildren Marshall Rosenberg talks about how we can create peace in the communities we work with. He's been traveling to warring nations to create peace within those countries. Sandra Cisneros peace-withincommunitycountry My mom was a frustrated woman, like so many unhappy women who didn't get the opportunities they wanted. Sandra Cisneros frustratedmomopportunity
