I would drive on streets that were one-way and think, "Why are they all honking at me?"

I remember when they started publishing Latino fiction years ago. You had to be really good to get published. Now you don't have to be that good.

The older you get, the more power you have with language as a writer, which means that you have to be extra responsible for what you say, whether it's in print or in front of a microphone, because those words can go out and kill or go out and plant seeds for peace.

There's a lot of things that haven't been communicated to our communities. I didn't know these things myself. I didn't know that if you ate cheap food, it was like buying cheap gasoline, and there was a reason why after an hour you get headaches, or youhypoglycemic.

I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me.

That's why it's important to be multilingual, because it teaches you so much about your own language.

God made men by baking them in an oven, but he forgot about the first batch, and that's how Black people were born. And then he was so anxious about the next batch, he took them out of the oven too soon, so that's how White people were made. But the third batch he let cook until they were golden-golden-golden, and, honey, that's you and me.