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.

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.

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.

You can never have too much sky.

Is it a crime when you love someone so much that you can't stand the thought of them changing? Is it a crime when you love someone so much that you can't see clearly?

Original art emanates in the mind ... and lessons society's confusion from self indulgence, avarice and greed to trust, hope and love.

You have a destiny and a purpose that no one else on this earth can fulfill…and you have traveled a unique journey that has equipped you along the way with the tools you need to carry it out.

There is no necessary connection between the desire to lead and the ability to lead, and even less the ability to lead somewhere that will be to the advantage of the led.

The determined fixing of our will upon God, and pressing toward him steadily and without deflection; this is the very center and the art of prayer.

Wit is the key, I think, to anybody's heart, because who doesn't like to laugh?

Certain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.

We don't have to surrender our souls or our compassion.

Troubled times do call for troubled songs, songs that unsettle our souls and our spirits unapologetically.

I have this prejudice that trilogies are long, three-volume novels.