119 Quotes by Luis Alberto Urrea

I had not seen lawns till fifth grade - big green lawns.

I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality do dovetail with my motivation to write.

I often say poetry was my first love.

Many of us writers tour like a literary Bachman Turner Overdrive. We ain't pretty, but we're on the road. Many of us wish we were rock stars anyway. For my part, I live in my iPod. The musicians there are my constant companions on the road.

I missed the Wilco phenom while busy obsessing over rock en Espanol. So imagine my surprise when I found myself at O'Hare getting on a plane with my Chi-town homeboy, Jeff Tweedy. I loved the guy right away and loved his family. How odd to know somebody before you listen to them. I don't know if that's bad or good.

My dad looked like Errol Flynn, and I think my mom thought she was moving into a hacienda, but they lived on a dirt street in Tijuana, a house jammed with relatives, nobody speaking English. She didn't know a word of Spanish. She grew up well and was appalled and humiliated, terrified of anyone ethnic.

Way back when I was working at the dump, I saw that, even when living among the trash, that some people would decide to choose joy in their lives.

Writing went from being a calling to being a job. Business ruined things. It became like making sausages in a sausage factory.

The French-Cajun culture is similar to mine - they're Catholic, they play accordions, and they eat hot chiles.