Quotes from Sandra Cisneros

In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness. It means waiting. It is like the number nine, a muddy color.

One of my favorite writers is Hans Christian Anderson. His stories speak to the times.

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.

To me, the Virgen de Guadalupe is just a vessel for me to recognize my own God within myself.

I learn through listening and watching other performers that are very good, like Denise Chávez, Dorothy Allison.

I don't really think our government at heart wants peace. So I urge you, write to Mrs. Laura Bush, because she reads.

I hope I'm not just looked as a writer that is popular but as a writer of literary value.

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.

I don't see any kind of mirror of power, male power, that is, as a form of liberation. I don't believe in an eye for an eye. I don't believe this is truly freedom.

Even if we don't know if God exists, we can be certain love exists, because its power transcends death.

My father never wanted me to be a writer. He didn't - he came to terms with it maybe two years before he died. He wanted me to be a weather girl because when I was growing up, there were very few Latinas on television, and in the early '70s when you first started seeing Latinas on TV, they would be the weather girls.

My father always defined my gender to my brothers. He'd say, 'This is your sister; you must take care of her.'

I think people should read fairy tales, because we're hungry for a mythology that will speak to our fears.

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.

One press account said I was an overnight success. I thought that was the longest night I've ever spent.

The border between the dead and the living, if you're Mexican, doesn't exist. The dead are part of your life.

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.

Some people need flowers, some people need dandelions. It's medicine, it's what you need at that time in your life.

Perhaps the greatest challenge has been trying to keep my time to myself and my private life private in order to do my job. Everything that is most mine belongs to everyone now.

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?

Once people are not here physically, the spiritual remains. We still connect, we can communicate, we can give and receive love and forgiveness. There is love after someone dies.

I had no concept of this [healthy food] until very, very late in life, thanks to a trainer/nutritionist that I met who has been working with me since I was forty-five.

In the business world, I did fairly well, but wasn't happy. A bout of sciatica put me flat on my back. All I could do was read, listen to my mother's stories about the Sandovals, and daydream: a return to self. My writing career had begun.

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.