All of my works are performance pieces, as is true for many writers of color, writers who have indigenous roots - because our basis is spoken word.

I've put up with too much, too long, and now I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything less.

I am obsessed with becoming a woman comfortable in her skin.

My weapon has always been language, and I've always used it, but it has changed. Instead of shaping the words like knives now, I think they're flowers, or bridges.

You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are.

The beauty of literature is you allow readers to see things through other peoples eyes. All good books do this.

'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. 'Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.

If you know two cultures and two languages, that intermediate place, where the two don't perfectly meet, is really interesting.

People know when you're speaking from el corazón. You have that pain. Take that pain and do something with it. That's very powerful.

The world we live in is a house on fire and the people we love are burning.

You don't want somebody who doesn't know his own heart, do you? You'll find someone who's brave enough to love you. Someday. One day. Not today.

Hope is a flourishing flower.

The Holy Spirit’s desire is that we become more and more dependent upon Him for every step. That’s because He wants to take us to places we’ve never been before. To heights we can’t even imagine!

Aggression like this demanded slinging the first punch in a bar brawl, firing rounds at a range, or setting a car on fire.

I wonder what Piglet is doing," thought Pooh. "I wish I were there to be doing it, too.

I don't have life rage anymore.

I was homeless and I was in San Diego and I started singing in a local coffee shop and people started coming to hear me sing.

When we complain, we remain. When we whine, we stay behind. When we praise, we raise.

I'm not eager to jump into marriage again. I'm in the corner right now, wearing my dunce cap. That area is obviously a nightmare.

We have to stop judging people who are struggling with their weight.

Once one is beyond a certain level of commitment to the sport, life begins to seem an allegory of rowing rather than rowing an allegory of life.