Rudolfo Anaya Quotes

#1. I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her [Ultima] I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things.

Rudolfo Anaya

#2. Perhaps the best god would be like a woman, because only women really knew how to forgive.

Rudolfo Anaya

#3. A [real] man does not flee from truth

Rudolfo Anaya

#4. 'Bless Me, Ultima' is quite autobiographical in the sense that I was writing a story about my childhood, my hometown where I grew up, Santa Rosa, New Mexico, on Old Highway 66 and the Pecos River. So a great deal of that environment, landscape, people, got thrown in the novel.

Rudolfo Anaya

#5. I made strength from everything that had happened to me, so that in the end even the final tragedy could not defeat me. And that is what Ultima tried to teach me, that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart.
Antonio

Rudolfo Anaya

#6. Sometimes a man has to cry. Even if he is a man.

Rudolfo Anaya

#7. Why are they like that?' I asked Cico. We skirted Blue Lake and worked our way through the tall, golden grass to the creek.
'I don't know,' Cico answered, 'except that people, grown-ups and kids, seem to want to hurt each other - and it's worse when they're in a group.

Rudolfo Anaya

#8. My father was what you would call a cowboy, a vaquero; he worked out in the ranches with cattle. And my mother came from farmers down in the valley.

Rudolfo Anaya

#9. In many respects, I think 'Bless Me, Ultima' is a novel about the indigenous.

Rudolfo Anaya

#10. It seemed the more I knew about people the more I knew about the strange magic hidden in their hearts.

Rudolfo Anaya

#11. I think that if there is a hell it's just a place where you're left all alone, with nobody around you. Man, when you're alone you don't have to burn, just being by yourself for all of time would be the worst punishment the Old Man could give you

Rudolfo Anaya

#12. The germ of creation lies in violence.

Rudolfo Anaya

#13. Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and the owls sing in the hills, I shall be with you-

Rudolfo Anaya

#14. I asked Go to answer my questions, but the only sound was always the whistling of the wind filling the empty space.

Rudolfo Anaya

#15. Any land will flow with milk and honey if it is worked with honest hands!

Rudolfo Anaya

#16. It is because good is always stronger than evil. Always remember that, Antonio. The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant.

Rudolfo Anaya

#17. A library is also a place where love begins.

Rudolfo Anaya

#18. I sincerely believe that there is a time in life for drifting. There is a time for sitting back and getting in touch with yourself. Some of our most interesting illuminations and ideas will come when we take time to reflect, time to kick back and cruise awhile.

Rudolfo Anaya

#19. Understanding comes with life. As a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, he works, plays, meets people - sometimes it takes a lifetime to acquire understanding, because in the end understanding simply means having sympathy for people.

Rudolfo Anaya

#20. Oh, where is the innocence I must never lose?" ~Antonio

Rudolfo Anaya

#21. To me, the fact that the Mexican came North in search of a better life is a tremendous epic that hasn't been written. It's an odyssey that we know nothing about. And they came with a dream for a better life.

Rudolfo Anaya

#22. When people ask me where my roots are, I look down at my feet, and I see the roots of my soul grasping the earth. They are here ... in the Southwest ... I still live in New Mexico.

Rudolfo Anaya

#23. There are many gods ... gods of beauty and magic, gods of the garden, gods in our own backyards, but we go off to foreign countries to find new ones, we reach to the stars to find new ones
... The god of the church is a jealous god; he cannot live in peace with other gods.

Rudolfo Anaya

#24. I used to write at night. I was teaching school, and I was married, and had to do all the things that one does when one is working and has a family. But I used to write at night.

Rudolfo Anaya

#25. The sun was good. The men of the llano were men of the sun. The men of the farms along the river were men of the moon. But we were all children of the white sun.

Rudolfo Anaya

#26. Where did you get Ultima's name?" many ask me. "That was her name when she came to me," I answer. From that first fortuitous meeting I have trained myself to act as a dream catcher. I don't seek characters, they seem to come to me asking me to tell their stories.

Rudolfo Anaya

#27. I have traveled to many places but have no desire to leave New Mexico.

Rudolfo Anaya

#28. I've always used the technique of the cuento. I am an oral storyteller, but now I do it on the printed page. I think if we were very wise we would use that same tradition in video cassettes, in movies, and on radio.

Rudolfo Anaya

#29. How strong these people were to leave such a lasting impression.

Rudolfo Anaya

#30. And that is what Ultima tried to teach me, that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart.

Rudolfo Anaya

#31. There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air.

Rudolfo Anaya