For me, a story's a story if people want to hear it; it's very much based on oral storytelling. And for me, a story is a story when people give me the privilege of listening when I'm speaking it out loud.

My Spanish is a daughter's Spanish. I write, but my Spanish really is very limited.

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.

I think that we need to measure how we give dollars to libraries by need. And the communities that are poor, in my opinion, should get more because you have to do more outreach.

When I was writing Caramelo the last couple of years, a sixty-hour work week was normal. And now I'm lucky if I have eight hours.

If you know two cultures and two languages, that intermediate place, where the two don't perfectly meet, is really interesting.

You know, we should have cards like the deaf have. "Can't talk, I'm writing today."