“Life was generous: it gave a man a thousand things to be pissed off about.” — Luis Alberto Urrea Kindness Copy Share Image
Poverty ennobles no one; it brutalizes common people and makes them hungry and old. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“Who was to say that God did not use the coyote’s teeth to eat His gifts?” — Luis Alberto Urrea Coyote Copy Share Image
Poetry is how I feed the soul, and it's how I fire the furnace of writing. — Luis Alberto Urrea Fire Copy Share Image
“My friend,' he said, 'no one is more ired of religion than a priest.” — Luis Alberto Urrea Friendship Copy Share Image
Masculinity is kind of a toxic curse, isn't it? The expectations of it were hard on me. — Luis Alberto Urrea Expectations Copy Share Image
“...There was nothing one could do when love came. It was fast, and it was strong, and if it were not good,… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I believe God is a poet; every religion in our history was made of poems and songs, and not a few of… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The situation was kind of complicated in that my mother didn't speak Spanish. My father spoke English, you know, as best he… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I love books with titles like, 'How Do You Spank a Porcupine?,' 'Arnie, the Darling Starling,' or 'The Bat in My Pocket.' — Luis Alberto Urrea Books Copy Share Image
When I was a little boy in Tijuana, it was wonderland. We left when I was probably four - I was dying… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The stupidity of militarized fences between two worlds is a metaphor for all the things that divide us as human beings. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The tone of 'Into the Beautiful North' is really the way I write. 'Hummingbird's Daughter' was the anomaly. It was a once-in-a-lifetime… — Luis Alberto Urrea Beautiful Copy Share Image
“Cruz made the sign of the cross over them. He hefted his rifle onto his shoulder and walked away. His warriors followed,… — Luis Alberto Urrea Cross Copy Share Image
It's the most absurd story. I grew up in the dirt streets of Tijuana, dying of all kinds of diseases - tuberculosis,… — Luis Alberto Urrea Absurd Copy Share Image
When I was doing missionary work when I was younger, which started this obsession of mine with the literature of witness, I… — Luis Alberto Urrea Books Copy Share Image
Many of us writers tour like a literary Bachman Turner Overdrive. We ain't pretty, but we're on the road. Many of us… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“Fat green frogs, the eternally grinning type destined to be shellacked into bizarre poses while wearing mariachi hats and holding toy trumpets… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“The sky peeled back for a moment, and a weak ray of sunset spilled over the scene like the diseased eye of… — Luis Alberto Urrea Moon Copy Share Image
There is beauty in our roots. Sometimes we think our roots are shameful, and people tell you that you're no good or… — Luis Alberto Urrea Ancestors Copy Share Image
My dad looked like Errol Flynn, and I think my mom thought she was moving into a hacienda, but they lived on… — Luis Alberto Urrea Dad Copy Share Image
“Cuquis can read. She pores over a Bible the missionaries have given her. "Listen to this," she says. "'Let the rich man… — Luis Alberto Urrea Bible Copy Share Image
“He couldn't believe she was real. She was like some dream, some story old men told youngsters. She made a fool out… — Luis Alberto Urrea Dreams Copy Share Image
“And afterward, I stopped at Red Cloud's grave to pay my respects to the old chief. Some Oglalas had left him tobacco… — Luis Alberto Urrea Afterlife Copy Share Image
“It seems jolly on the page. But imagine poverty, violence, natural disasters, or political fear driving you away from everything you know.… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“Aztlán (“The Place of the Reeds”) was the traditional home of the Aztecs, a possibly mythical motherland from which the tribe ventured… — Luis Alberto Urrea Aztecs Copy Share Image
“Even if, at the moment, you can't sit down and do the gruntwork of stringing verbs and nouns together, you are writing.… — Luis Alberto Urrea Time Copy Share Image
I once made the mistake of writing a story with David Corbett. The man smoked me. He can delineate the character and… — Luis Alberto Urrea Accordion Copy Share Image
I was deeply infected with storytelling from the get go, and I truly love it. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
People think of me as a political writer, but I don't think of myself that way. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
