You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are. Sandra Cisneros More Quotes by Sandra Cisneros More Quotes From Sandra Cisneros Friends started saying, "Oh, don't come. No vengas. It's dangerous for us, and we live here." Then there's also the issue, if you go back, and you happen to be Mexican-American, you get treated very differently [in Mexico] than if you're blond. If you say something wrong, they say, "Why don't you learn your mother tongue?" Sandra Cisneros issuesmexicanmother Every book takes you to the terror, that terrible place of possible failure. Sandra Cisneros terrorterriblebook I'm from Chicago, so the Chicago working-class poets still mean a great deal to me. Sandra Cisneros chicagoclassmean Packing is important because a lot of times I have to go places where I have to be in four different climates in three weeks. For example, Bosnia, Ireland, Rome. Different parts of Italy. You have to pack and get it down to a science. Sandra Cisneros romeclimateimportant There's a lot of people that need these stories, and they can't come to my book, so I'm going to be the bookmobile and I'm going to come to them. Sandra Cisneros storiesbookpeople We women shouldn't get our driver's licenses till real late in life. Sandra Cisneros driverslatereal I find myself using Spanish words much more now that I'm older, and I guess I have the authority to do it in public spaces in ways that I felt I couldn't when I was teaching here fifteen years ago. Sandra Cisneros spaceteachingyears I just feel that the East and the West are two different worlds. I sometimes get saddened when I see that very few writers of color are published or reviewed in East Coast presses and magazines. Sandra Cisneros colortwoworld What do we call our Harlem Renaissance? Maybe in the future, it won't be just Latino, maybe it'll be more multi-multi, because, you know, people are such fusions now, of so many different cultures. Sandra Cisneros fusiondifferentpeople There are still many writers out in the Bay, extraordinary writers like Gina Valdez, a poet who I just saw in Portland. We have young people like Eduardo Corral, who won the Yale Younger Poets Award. José Antonio Rodriguez, published by Luis Rodriguez. But there are only a few of us who are paid attention to in New York. There are legions behind us who are not. Sandra Cisneros awardsyalenew-york I remember when they started publishing Latino fiction years ago. You had to be really good to get published. Now you don't have to be that good. Sandra Cisneros rememberfictionyears I think there's a rule that once you want to live somewhere, you can't find a job. Sandra Cisneros wantjobsthinking I've been on television saying, "¡Vamos a la biblioteca!". That was great. Nobody had ever asked me. Sandra Cisneros television Post 9/11, we've seen such disastrous policies on the border. I live two and a half hours away from the border, and I've seen changes for the communities there. I feel like it's an occupied zone. We're losing our rights, and both sides of the border are terrified. The Mexican population and the U.S. population are united in fear. Sandra Cisneros communityrightstwo One of the things we learned from that panel is the way poor communities use a library is very different from wealthy communities. But the way the library books are measured are by how many books are taken out. And people in poor communities sometimes won't take the book out because they're afraid to. They're afraid of losing it and not being able to replace it. Sandra Cisneros takenbookpeople There are a few of the authors that I think have made a great big impact on my life. The way I used to do things when I was younger was more about being outrageous, and there was a lot of ego involved in that. Sandra Cisneros impactegothinking I don't really think our government at heart wants peace. So I urge you, write to Mrs. Laura Bush, because she reads. Sandra Cisneros heartwritingthinking Why don't we have people like Thich Nhat Hanh or Marshall Rosenberg and Nelson Mandela solving violent situations in a peaceful way? Sandra Cisneros peacefulpeopleway I think that it's not enough to do the little Band-Aid things of having celebrities come and read to children. Not that we don't need to read to children, but we don't need to just do it one time and feel good about it. I think we need to think long range about poor people and their relationship to libraries. Sandra Cisneros longchildrenthinking I think there's some great stuff coming. I do feel that. I think we have reached our Harlem Renaissance. Sandra Cisneros renaissancestuffthinking
