To me, the Virgen de Guadalupe is just a vessel for me to recognize my own God within myself.

I think I didn't know what I was creating, as much as I knew what I didn't want to do. And I didn't want my mother's life. She was an unhappy, frustrated artist who always dreamed of a life that was never going to be hers.

You know how sometimes you meet writers that are so full of themselves? They feel really proud that they wrote something . But what they don't understand - and I like to tell this to writers - is that writing is like fishing. It's just like fishing. If you don't fish that often, you're not going to catch that many fish.

You don't have to be the specialist on everything. You can try to inform yourself.

Think about the books that you were reading at a certain crisis in your life, what you were reading, and that's because you needed them to nourish your alma.

Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.

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