Quotes by Sandra Cisneros

About Sandra Cisneros:

Sandra Cisneros is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street (1984) and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms and investigates emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I have to understand what my strengths and limitations are, and work from a true place. I try to do this as best I can while still protecting my writer self, which more than ever needs privacy.

Sandra Cisneros

I think my family and closest friends are learning about my need to withdraw, and I am learning how to restore and store my energy to both serve the community to the best of my ability and to serve my writer's heart.

Sandra Cisneros

I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog.

Sandra Cisneros

But I deal with this meditating and by understanding I've been put on the planet to serve humanity. I have to remind myself to live simply and not to overindulge, which is a constant battle in a material world.

Sandra Cisneros

I'm afraid I'm still trying to find that balance. Especially now that everyone wants a piece of me. I find that I have to become more and more reclusive, and pick and choose when I am public and when I am private.

Sandra Cisneros

I try to be as honest about what I see and to speak rather than be silent, especially if it means I can save lives, or serve humanity.

Sandra Cisneros

I realize that when I moved out of my father's house I shocked and frightened him because I needed a room of my own, a space of my own to reinvent myself.

Sandra Cisneros

I usually say Latina, Mexican-American or American Mexican, and in certain contexts, Chicana, depending on whether my audience understands the term or not.

Sandra Cisneros

Sometimes I feel I can't quite master my written and spoken Spanish, because I'm too much a student of English. I would need another lifetime to learn it.

Sandra Cisneros

I wasn't aware that 'House on Mango Street' was so influenced by Spanish until after I finished.

Sandra Cisneros

I think people should read fairy tales, because we're hungry for a mythology that will speak to our fears.

Sandra Cisneros

I think that Mexican-American kids live in a global world. It's not even bi-, it's multi-. You know, for those of us who grew up with different countries on our block, different nationalities, you know, we moved into multiple worlds.

Sandra Cisneros

My father always defined my gender to my brothers. He'd say, 'This is your sister; you must take care of her.'

Sandra Cisneros

'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. 'Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.

Sandra Cisneros

I thought that strange syntax was the language of story books. I didn't realize those were poor translations... English from Edwardian times.

Sandra Cisneros

I feel comfortable in Spanish, I chat like a parrot, but I don't have the confidence in Spanish that I do in English.

Sandra Cisneros

The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself.

Sandra Cisneros

For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don't need a room of your own, you need a house.

Sandra Cisneros

Writing is like sewing together what I call these 'buttons,' these bits and pieces.

Sandra Cisneros

In my youth, daydreaming nurtured me, provided a safe haven. I'd sleep for twelve hours and even when awake escape to the safe place in my mind.

Sandra Cisneros

Author Bio

  • NameSandra Cisneros
  • Descriptionnovelist, poet, and short story writer
  • BornDecember 20, 1954
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist; Poet; Short Story Writer; Writer
  • WorksThe House On Mango Street; Woman Hollering Creek And Other Stories
  • AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program