50 Quotes by Juan Felipe Herrera

Sometimes I have a very fleeting emotional dance with a fleeting phrase, like 'half-Mexican.'

As a boy, I felt ashamed of being Mexican. I'd say I was Hawaiian.

The more we engage in society, the more firsts we have, then there will be a moment when we have no more firsts. Or maybe there will always be new firsts.

Do not wait for a poem; a poem is too fast for you. Do not wait for the poem; run with the poem and then write the poem.

The banner of the project is 'Casa de Colores.' Under that banner, I'm going to invite people to do a lot of good things. Perhaps working in groups, working on poetry.

I want our young Latinos and Latinas to write their hearts out and express their hearts out and let us all listen to each other.

I want to take everything I have in me, weave it, merge it with the beauty that is in the Library of Congress, all the resources, the guidance of the staff and departments, and launch it with the heart-shaped dreams of the people.

A pen is different from the pad, the key, moving your fingers across a screen. I like both. I like to work on sketchbooks, big old white sketch paper. I like how that feels, and I like to put different media on it. Then there's the phone, smartphone, iPad: It's the new page, and it's not the same page anymore.

I'm usually writing in English, and then I'll get the hankering to change channels. And usually I'll do that when I want to try a whole new set of keys, like musical keys.