Once you tell a man he's pretty, there's no taking it back. They think they're pretty all the time, and I suppose, in a way, they are. It's got to do with believing it.

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.

Success has more to do with what you are willing to sacrifice than your skills, talent or IQ.

Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you.

Are you a fortune-teller? A clairvoyant? If not, why anticipate the worst for yourself? We predict events will turn out in a negative way because our self-beliefs are limiting.

I tell people, and it's the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won't make me a car. And you can sit in church till your bottom is flat and that won't make you a servant of Christ.

To any aspiring actor, go and train yourself.

My father used to get me to read the newspaper to him, as if I was a radio. I would stand there and read the 'Times.

Surely a woman who picked a spot so close to the ocean didn't automatically hide from the rain.

Write for the right reasons - i.e. yourself.

He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.

Im obsessed with the moon and space travel, so if I could incorporate that, Id love to go to space.