Quotes from Rudolfo Anaya

Perhaps the best god would be like a woman, because only women really knew how to forgive

I used to write at night. I was teaching school, and I was married, and had to do all the things that one does when one is working and has a family. But I used to write at night.

But in the end, magic is magic, and one does not explain it so easily. That is why it is magic. To the child it is natural, but as for the grown man it loses its naturalness-- so as old men we see a different reality. And when we dream it is usually for a lost childhood, or trying to change someone, and that is not good. So, in the end, I accept reality-

I wonder what the years have gathered in the bags. I bet it's like looking through old trunks, old letters and photographs, an old shoe or two.

Why are they like that?' I asked Cico. We skirted Blue Lake and worked our way through the tall, golden grass to the creek. 'I don't know,' Cico answered, 'except that people, grown-ups and kids, seem to want to hurt each other - and it's worse when they're in a group.

If the old religion could no longer answer the questions of the children then perhaps it was time to change it.

Oh, where is the innocence I must never lose? ~Antonio

It was very sad to see my father cry, but I understood it, because sometimes a man has to cry. Even if he is a man.

Time forever. Millions of worlds are born, evolve, and pass away into nebulous, unmeasured skies; and there is still eternity. Time always.

We prayed until our faith passed into an exhaustion that numbed us to sleep.

Her eyes swept the surrounding hills and through them I saw for the first time the wild beauty of our hills and the magic of the green river. My nostrils quivered as I felt the song of the mockingbirds and the drone of the grasshoppers mingle with the pulse of the earth. The four directions of the llano met in me, and the white sun shone on my soul. The granules of sand at my feet and the sun and sky above me seemed to dissolve into one strange, complete being.

I think most of the things we call evil are not evil at all; it is just that we don't understand those things, and so we call them evil. And we fear evil only because we do not understand it.

I asked Go to answer my questions, but the only sound was always the whistling of the wind filling the empty space.

Ultima said to take life's experiences and build strength from them, not weakness.

Even after the big rancheros and the tejanos came and fenced the beautiful llano, he and those like him continued to work there, I guess because only in that wide expanse of land and sky could they feel the freedom their spirits needed.

I think most of the things we call evil are not evil at all; it is just that we don't understand those things and so we call them evil. And we fear evil only because we do not understand it. - Gabriel Marez

How strong these people were to leave such a lasting impression.

Take life's experiences and build strength from them, not weaknesses.

There are so many dreams to be fulfilled, but Ultima says a man's destiny must unfold itself like a flower, with only the sun and the earth and water making it blossom, and no one else meddling in it

Those sons of bitches up there are to blame!' Another worker shouted and jumped forward. He shook an angry fist at the blank faces that looked down on the death scene from the offices atop the yard administration. 'Sánchez's work crew had been cut back twice! It's unsafe to work with so few men! You all know that! Yes, someone's to blame, and the blame lies with those bastards that treat us like animals and our rotten union that won't protect us!

What would my grandfather say? Ben thought. Politics is the art of chingando. Chinga aquí, chingá allá, chinga a todos iguales. The art of chingando was very democratic; everybody got screwed.

I cannot let things remain as they are, because then I would not be free. If I cease to act because I fear the future, then I create a worse enslavement for myself. That much I know. While my people are not free, I am not free. If the freedom and justice I seek loose destruction upon the earth, then I accept that responsibility, but it seems to me that the real responsibility must be borne by those who keep me from my freedom. I must act!

That's what the welfare people want,' Tranquilino gritted his teeth, 'to have us on welfare and to have our women working. Then they can point to our broken families and say the mexicano is a lazy, no good son-of-a-bitch!

What greater good could there be in a man's life than to lift the oppression that destroys them, what greater honor is there?