Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in

Books are medicine and you have to take the right medicine that you need at that moment or that day or that time in your life.

I don't close myself to the possibility of someplace outside the United States, but it would have to be someplace with an indigenous community, because that's where I feel at home.

People know when you're speaking from el corazón. You have that pain. Take that pain and do something with it. That's very powerful.

You know how they say, "Find your voice"? That's your voice, in your pajamas. And it doesn't mean that you're going to publish it or print it or people are going to see you in your pajamas. It just means you are going to construct the foundation in your pajamas, in that voice.

The world we live in is a house on fire and the people we love are burning.

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.