You don't want somebody who doesn't know his own heart, do you? You'll find someone who's brave enough to love you. Someday. One day. Not today.

The truth has a strange way of following you, of coming up to you and making you listen to what it has to say.

The only reason we write - well, the only reason why I write; maybe I shouldn't generalize - is so that I can find out something about myself. Writers have this narcissistic obsession about how we got to be who we are. I have to understand my ancestors - my father, his mother and her mother - to understand who I am. It all leads back to the narcissistic pleasure of discovering yourself.

I also learned to tell a story. I think I learned from poetry how to time a story. Poetry's timing, beats and pauses. That white space on the page is as important as the black. The bottom of the page is blackout. It's performance.

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

I don't really think our government at heart wants peace. So I urge you, write to Mrs. Laura Bush, because she reads.

I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.