Below are quotes which have appeared in past issues of Latinidad®. If you have a quote you would like to share, please e-mail it to me at marcelalandres@yahoo.com.
“Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.”--African Proverb
“The reason I love comics more than anything else is that the longest story will be just a few pages. With a novel, it takes so many pages to get to one thing happening.”--Sergio Aragones
“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” ―Laurie Colwin
“If Bruce Springsteen, Harlan Howard, or Tom Waits can tell a character’s whole story in four minutes, maybe you don’t need as many words as you think to make an impact.”--Tim Leffel, Travel Writing 2.0
“Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”--M. Scott Peck
“Children live in a way that is very generous. They learn from a young age what you value; they watch your every move. If you value writing, they will learn quickly to value it too, as something they can give to someone, or receive with pleasure from someone else.” --Pam Allyn, Your Child’s Writing Life
“The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns.”--Herman Wouk
“Many published writers don’t have an MFA and many don’t want one. It’s okay if you don’t want to pursue the degree and it’s certainly okay if the only reason you do want a creative writing MFA is to fulfill a personal desire or lifelong dream. In fact, perhaps the best reason to undertake an MFA is exactly that: the desire to dedicate two or three years to improving your craft under the guidance of critical—but supportive—voices.”--Lori A. May, The Low-Residency MFA Handbook
“By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication."—Ralph Ellison
“A talented ghost brings more to the table than writing ability; he or she brings fresh ideas, brainstorming skills, and a collaborative spirit to make the book that the client wants to write even better—without being asked.”—Kelly James-Enger“A book is a gift you can open again and again.”--Garrison Keillor
“You have to write whichever book it is that wants to be written. And then, if it’s going to be too difficult for grown-ups, you write it for children.”--Madeleine L’Engle
“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”--James A. Michener
“There's only one thing more frightening than being asked to do a book tour, and that's not being asked to do a book tour."—Gerald Petievich
“There is a temperate zone in the mind, between luxurious indolence and exacting work; and it is to this region, just between laziness and labor, that summer reading belongs.”--Henry Ward Beecher
“In order to even begin to learn how to play his instrument, it takes the guitarist weeks to build calluses on his fingertips; it takes the saxophonist months to strengthen his lip so that he might play his instrument for only a five-minute stretch; it can take the pianist years to develop dual hand and multiple finger coordination. Why do writers assume they can just “write” with no training whatsoever—and then expect, on their first attempt, to be published internationally? What makes them think they’re so much inherently greater, need so much less training than any other artists?”--Noah Lukeman
“Writing is a journey, not an event.”--Christina Katz
“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”--John Steinbeck
“Money is like a sixth sense--and you can’t make use of the other five without it.”--William Somerset Maugham
“La lengua es la piel del alma/Language is the skin of the soul.”--Fernando Lazaro Carreter
“This is an absolutely essential skill for a writer: the ability to involve others in your revision process. You have to be not only the author, but also your own editor in chief.”--Thomas Legendre
“A book worth reading is worth buying.”--John Ruskin
“A combination of the qualities of the scholar, the master cook, the painter, the gastronomer, the sportsman, and the pantologist, assisted by the skill of the bookmaker and etcher, will be required to compose the cook-book par excellence."--George H. Ellwanger
“In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.”--J. William Fulbright
“A writer needs to realize he can’t just sit home and write. He must market, promote, blog, Twitter, travel, call, cajole, shake hands, interpretative dance, whatever it takes to build a platform.”—Wade Rouse
“So my advice to writers would be to aggressively seek the truth--forget about your ego--and do one more draft than your agent asks you to. The writers who I have noticed being successful are the ones who are making their agents wait for that next draft.”--Jonathan Karp, Publisher, Simon & Schuster
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”--Thomas Jefferson
“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”--Anna Quindlen
“You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.”—Joseph Joubert
“Books aren't written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”--Michael Crichton
“Write to where you want to be, not where you’re at.”--Michael Perry
As difficult as it is for a writer to find a publisher--admittedly a daunting task--it is twice as difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list.”--Olivia Goldsmith
“Do give books--religious or otherwise--for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.”--Lenore Hershey
“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”--Desiderius Erasmus
“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.”--Gwendolyn Brooks
“The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.”--Mickey Spillane
“A writer cannot choose his audience; he can only be himself and let his audience choose him.”--Sloan Wilson
“Hold on tight to the words of your ancestors.”--Maori Quote
"You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better."--Maxim Gorky
“To have great poets there must be great audiences too.”--Walt Whitman
“You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.”--Larry Niven
“Literature is all, or mostly, about sex.”--Anthony Burges
“The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple: editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.”--John Campbell
“Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.”--Francis Bacon
“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.”-- William E. Simon
“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.”—Piet Mondrian
“Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves”—Julia Cameron
“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.”—Chinese Proverb
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”--Oscar Wilde
“Language is a social event.”—Richard Rodriguez
“What the imagination seizes as beauty must be the truth.”-- John Keats
“The future of publishing lies with the small and medium-sized presses, because the big publishers in New York are all part of huge conglomerates.”--Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”--Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”—Margaret Mead
“If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”--Toni Morrison
“What you need to write a novel, of course, is a deadline.”—Chris Baty, author of No Plot? No Problem!
“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.”--Anthony Burgess
“People often apply to programs for a variety of reasons: to complete a manuscript, to qualify themselves to teach on the college level, to live and work within a community of writers, and/or to escape back into academia from ‘the real world.’ But here’s the real reason. . . . you are staking a claim to being a writer, and you’re letting everyone around you know it. Lots of people talk about being a writer; you’re doing something about it.”—Tom Kealey, The Creative Writing MFA Handbook
“Even the best writer has to erase.”—Spanish Proverb
“At some point in life, return to your ancestral home, be it a specific neighborhood or an entire continent, to learn from the roots within you. . . . If nothing else, you’ll leave with the satisfaction that you witnessed the same sunset as your ancestors, and that your boots collected the same dust.”—Stephanie Elizondo Griest, 100 Places Every Woman Should Go
“El latino is a walking embrace.”—Hector Tobar, Translation Nation
“Beginning things is the first sign of intelligence. Finishing what you have begun is the second.”—Panchatantra
“It could be true and never have happened.”—Ana Menendez, author of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd
"The one who tells the stories rules the world."—Hopi Proverb
“When we share our talents and passion with others, it generates love"--Ana Nogales, author of Latina Power
“Even genius is tied to profit.”--Pindar
"It is never, never too late, in a story or in real life, to correct."--Nancy Thayer
"He who is outside his door has the hard part of his journey behind him.”--Dutch Proverb
"The day you decide to do it, is your lucky day.”-Japanese Proverb
"If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.”-Henry David Thoreau
"When Fortune comes, seize her in front with a sure hand, because behind she is bald."--Leonardo da Vinci
"The pain of the discipline is short, but the glory of the fruition is eternal.”--Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Writing is only a guided dream.”--Jorge Luis Borges
"Words should be as clothes, carefully custom-made to fit the thought.”-Jules Renard
"The luck of having talent is not enough, one must also have a talent for luck.”--Hector Berlioz
"Life is ten percent as we make it and ninety percent as we take it.”-Irving Berlin
"Saying and doing do not eat at the same table.”--Antonio Perez
“What is written without effort is read without pleasure.”--Samuel Johnson
"The Word will always come first, and if it is a poetic word, so much the better.”--Efrain Huerta
“You may sell your work, but not your soul."--John Ruskin
"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is a painting that speaks.”--Simonides
"The first draft of anything is shitty.”-Ernest Hemingway
"We earn our living with what we do, but we make a life with what we give.”--Chinese Proverb
"The best way to make your dreams come true is waking up”--Paul Valery
"True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.”--La Rochefoucauld
"Only a person who does absolutely nothing, never makes a mistake.”--Mexican Proverb
"If you want to get good service, serve yourself.”--Italian Proverb
"Without a reader, I cannot write. It's like a kiss: they cannot be done alone.”--John Cheever
“What is false in the science of facts may be true in the science of values.”--Santayana
"You need to get up there and give it away so you can keep it."--From Smoking Lovely by Willie Perdomo. Copyright 2003 by Willie Perdomo. Published by Rattapallax Press, New York, NY
“Most people only do what they are asked to do; success comes to those who do a little more.”--Karl Kraus
“Diligence is the mother of good fortune.”--Cervantes
“Who desires to see, desires also to be seen.”--Puerto Rican Proverb
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”--Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”--George Bernard Shaw
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”--Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.”--Anais Nin
"If you bring forth what is inside of you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is inside of you, what is inside of you will destroy you."--The Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas
"Traveler, there is no path; paths are made by walking."--Antonio Machado
