In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness. It means waiting. It is like the number nine, a muddy color. Sandra Cisneros
I think people should read fairy tales, because we're hungry for a mythology that will speak to our fears. Sandra Cisneros
Generally if you're a daughter in a Mexican family, no one wants to tell you anything; they tell you the healthy lies about your family. Sandra Cisneros
I have to understand what my strengths and limitations are, and work from a true place. I try to do this as best I can while still protecting my writer self, which more than ever needs privacy. Sandra Cisneros
I usually say Latina, Mexican-American or American Mexican, and in certain contexts, Chicana, depending on whether my audience understands the term or not. Sandra Cisneros
I try to be as honest about what I see and to speak rather than be silent, especially if it means I can save lives, or serve humanity. Sandra Cisneros
I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog. Sandra Cisneros
I wasn't aware that 'House on Mango Street' was so influenced by Spanish until after I finished. Sandra Cisneros
I feel comfortable in Spanish, I chat like a parrot, but I don't have the confidence in Spanish that I do in English. Sandra Cisneros
For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don't need a room of your own, you need a house. Sandra Cisneros
I don't see any kind of mirror of power, male power, that is, as a form of liberation. I don't believe in an eye for an eye. I don't believe this is truly freedom. Sandra Cisneros
I think my family and closest friends are learning about my need to withdraw, and I am learning how to restore and store my energy to both serve the community to the best of my ability and to serve my writer's heart. Sandra Cisneros
But I deal with this meditating and by understanding I've been put on the planet to serve humanity. I have to remind myself to live simply and not to overindulge, which is a constant battle in a material world. Sandra Cisneros
I was silent as a child, and silenced as a young woman; I am taking my lumps and bumps for being a big mouth, now, but usually from those whose opinion I don't respect. Sandra Cisneros
She missed him the days when some pretext served to take him away from her, just as one misses the sun on a cloudy day without having thought much about the sun when it was shining. Kate Chopin
He greatly valued his possessions, chiefly because they were his, and derived genuine pleasure from contemplating a painting, a statuette, a rare lace curtain - no matter what - after he had bought it and placed it among his household gods. Kate Chopin
Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to furnish in their own personality a good bit of the motive power to the mad pace. Kate Chopin
There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water. Kate Chopin