16 quotes
We women treasure faces; in fact at any given moment life becomes a single face that we can touch with our lips.
That the poorest Mexicans don't deserve their ruling class is a truth that leaps out at once.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
I would like to return to earth because I love life.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
I have always had questions, and to this day, I don't have a single answer.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
I absorbed Mexico through the maids. A system still persists in Latin America which consists of privileged people having at their beck and call the poorest of the poor.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
I have always responded to challenges, followed apocalyptical personalities, apostles, Rasputins, Joan of Arcs who hear voices that come from Heaven, illuminated guides of humanity, holders of truth, priests.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
We have all been made bad, we are all needy, all unwanted guests around the feast, invited at the last minute. In recognizing this lies our creativity.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
To this day, if I ask so many questions, it is because I don't have a single answer. I believe I will die like this, still searching, with a question mark engraved on my eyelids.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
The locomotive was the main protagonist of the Mexican Revolution, but the Adelitas and Valentinas came a close second.
Las Soldaderas (1999)
Widows used to go around the way the poet Jaime Sabines would like them to: "There is one way, my love, that you could make me completely happy: die." Now widows are not even merry.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
Life is very resistant. People-the same cannon fodder that nourishes great universal misfortunes, "the wretched of the earth," as Frantz Fanon called them. Suddenly, during an earthquake, one of them saves a life.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)
The ultimate outcome of our actions cannot be known. But despite our limited awareness, I believe we must always act with compassion.
Interview with The Paris Review (2018)
Of course, imaginative writing always contains elements of the writer’s lived experience, but there is a different sort of freedom in it than there is in reporting or in novels based on interviews.
Interview with The Paris Review (2018)
The question of being encouraged or discouraged by this or that event cannot be asked if one is to go on with a certain moral conviction.
Interview with The Paris Review (2018)
Boundaries, after all—of custom, of language, of what is and is not permitted—not only function to keep others out but also keep those inside from expanding.
Interview with The Paris Review (2018)
I write in order to belong.
A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids (1992)