A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.

Terrence, the Roman slave who freed himself with his writings, once observed, "I am a human being. Nothing human is alien to me." That could be the motto of literature!

The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.

There is no end to what can be said about the world

I admit that for me love goes deeper than the struggle, or maybe what I mean is, love is the deeper struggle.

Reading and thoughtfulness and openness are the best way, I should think, to begin to address the richness that is in each of us.

As a young writer, I was on guard against the Latina in me, the Spanish in me because as far as I could see the models that were presented to me did not include my world. In fact, 'I was told by one teacher in college that one could only write poetry in the language in which one first said Mother. That left me out of American literature, for sure.