Quotes About Struggle

I had never had a childhood that was anything but a miserable effort at trying to be an adult," Picasso said.

You have robbed me of all the dignity I had for myself.

I was not a natural. . . . This is the story of becoming . . . the Hard Way.

But I've struggled, like every foster child I've ever met, between two opposing agonies: she didn't want me, and I'm the one who left. The guilt, still, is immeasurable.

They'd never know how confusion and cruelty change people, make them hard—the way the deepest cuts make the toughest scabs.

There are so many crises in foster care—the original abuse, the shock and alarm when a child is removed, the courtroom fights, kids rebelling, bio parents panicking, foster parents molesting, relapses, rehabs, reabuse—that basic, low-level functioning begins to seem exemplary. These are the mediocre flatlands of child welfare, where if it's not a crisis it's not a problem.

It's so funny looking back, but my so-called overnight success actually took 15 years. I remember when I didn't have any money, and my only car was mom's Hyundai.

True rebels hate their own rebellion. They know by experience that it is not a cool and glamorous lifestyle; it takes a courageous fool to say things that have not been said and to do things that have not been done.

The salesmen bought me perfume and invited me to lunch. But they couldn't talk to me about why families of guajiros slept in the city's parks under flashing Coca-Cola signs. Those men only murmured sweet nonsense to me, trying in vain to flatter me.

I came from México, but there's a lot of people here who, when they hear that, they think I crawled out of hell.

We left a lot of things behind - not only physical objects, but our friends and of course our families, pieces of ourselves - all for the chance to see that light in Maribel's eyes. It's been difficult, yes, but I would do it all again. People do what they have to do in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can.

Maybe it's the instinct of every immigrant, born of necessity or of longing:

There were torn between wanting to look back and wanting to exist absolutely in the new life they'd created

Americanah; Ayad Akhtar, American Dervish; Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents; Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street; Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Teju Cole, Open City; William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Nell Freudenberger, The Newlyweds; Cristina García, Dreaming in Cuban and King of Cuba; Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker.

They were torn between wanting to look back and wanting to exist absolutely in the new life they'd created

I mean, does anyone ever talk about why people are crossing? I can promise you it's not with some grand ambition to come here and ruin everything for the gringo chingaos. People are desperate, man.

Cristina Henriquez

I had learned by then that Maribel liked to think of herself as a rebel. And yet she managed only small insurrections.

You had to be willing to fight in order for a love story to last a life time.

Me pregunto si llegaré a ser alhun día feliz o si me pasaré el resto de mi vida luchando por sobrevivir. Aunque sobrevivo fabulosamente no quiero quejarme. Preferiría esperar lo peor y tener lo mejor... Maria callas

Le dije que me gustaba, y quedé insatisfecha. La verdad era que a veces no me gustaba nada, pero no podía vivir sin ella. Le dije que la quería, pero también quiero a mi perro. Después le dije que la amaba, pero mi incomodidad fue mayor aún [...] decidí prescindir del lenguaje, entonces me acusó de no querer comunicarme. Desde hace unos años, sólo existe el silencio. Encuentro, en él, una rara ecuanimidad: la de los placeres solitarios.

No hay vidas livianas. Todas son difíciles de llevar.

We have all been exiled from something or someone. I think this is a human condition

Like locusts on new corn, Gian had landed on her, struggling to undress as he kissed her.