Rudolfo Anaya Quotes & Sayings

Oh, where is the innocence I must never lose?" ~Antonio — Rudolfo Anaya

How strong these people were to leave such a lasting impression. — Rudolfo Anaya

The body is not important. It is made of dust; it is made of ashes. It is food for the worms. The winds and the waters dissolve it and scatter it to the four corners of the earth. In the end, what we care most for only lasts a brief lifetime, and then there is eternity. Time forever. Millions of worlds are born, evolve, and pass away into nebulous, unmeasured skies; and there is still eternity. Time always. The body becomes dust and trees and exploding fire, it becomes gaseous and disappears, and still there is eternity. Silent, unopposed, brooding, forever. — Rudolfo Anaya

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

Sometimes a man has to cry. Even if he is a man. — Rudolfo Anaya

In many respects, I think 'Bless Me, Ultima' is a novel about the indigenous. — Rudolfo Anaya

The germ of creation lies in violence. — Rudolfo Anaya

I was drinking beer to kill time, the erotic and sensitive Mexican time which is so different from the clean-packaged, well-kept time of the Americanos. Time in Mexico is at times cruel and punishing, but it is never indifferent. It permeates everything, changes reality. Einstein would have loved Mexico because there time and space are one. I stare more often into empty space when I'm in Mexico. — Rudolfo Anaya

Perhaps the best god would be like a woman, because only women really knew how to forgive. — Rudolfo Anaya

I have traveled to many places but have no desire to leave New Mexico. — Rudolfo Anaya

It seemed the more I knew about people the more I knew about the strange magic hidden in their hearts. — Rudolfo Anaya

'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

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

Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood. — Rudolfo Anaya

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

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

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

The orange of the golden carp appeared at the edge of the pond ... We watched in silence at the beauty and grandeur of the great fish. Out of the corners of my eyes I saw Cico hold his hand to his breast as the golden carp glided by. Then with a switch of his powerful tail the golden carp disappeared into the shadowy water under the thicket. — Rudolfo Anaya

Around me the moonlight glittered on the pebbles of the llano, and in the night sky a million stars sparkled. Across the river I could see the twinkling lights of the town. In a week I would be returning to school, and as always I would be running up the goat path and crossing the bridge to go to church. Sometime in the future I would have to build my own dream out of those things that were so much a part of my childhood. — Rudolfo Anaya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air. — Rudolfo Anaya

A [real] man does not flee from truth — Rudolfo Anaya

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

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

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

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

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

Any land will flow with milk and honey if it is worked with honest hands! — Rudolfo Anaya

A library is also a place where love begins. — Rudolfo Anaya

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