Quotes from Rudolfo Anaya

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.

Ay, every generation, every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new

We don't need the gospels, we need the fiery men who wrote them!

Bah! Do you think the poor people of the barrio pay for the upkeep of the Church? No! Wealth flows from wealth! And sources of wealth need stability to exist! And the Church provides stability! We teach the poor how to bear their burden; they are promised the kingdom of heaven, which is far more important than the little gains your strike would make …

'Bless Me, Ultima' is quite autobiographical in the sense that I was writing a story about my childhood, my hometown where I grew up, Santa Rosa, New Mexico, on Old Highway 66 and the Pecos River. So a great deal of that environment, landscape, people, got thrown in the novel.

There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air.

A library is also a place where love begins.

In many respects, I think 'Bless Me, Ultima' is a novel about the indigenous.

I have traveled to many places but have no desire to leave New Mexico.

To me, the fact that the Mexican came North in search of a better life is a tremendous epic that hasn't been written. It's an odyssey that we know nothing about. And they came with a dream for a better life.

When people ask me where my roots are, I look down at my feet, and I see the roots of my soul grasping the earth. They are here... in the Southwest... I still live in New Mexico.

Sometimes a man has to cry. Even if he is a man.

My father was what you would call a cowboy, a vaquero; he worked out in the ranches with cattle. And my mother came from farmers down in the valley.