I don't like to see people get kicked around. You have to stand up for them. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
We want to ascribe a kind of tragic grimness to people, but people are funny. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
Everybody knew that being dead could put you in a terrible mood. — Luis Alberto Urrea Mood Copy Share Image
I'm always trying to, using literature, subvert people's responses. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“The world looked to them like a great roll of butcher paper unfurled on a table.” — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
With a name like Luis Alberto Urrea, it's political no matter what I do. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
It became really important to me if I was going to write 'Hummingbird's Daughter' to try to do honor to women. — Luis Alberto Urrea Daughter Copy Share Image
I'm always fascinated by the disjunct between what's really happening on the ground and the propaganda machine that feeds America alarmist news… — Luis Alberto Urrea America Copy Share Image
I don't like being angry all the time; it's not good for me. I have to have serenity or else go to… — Luis Alberto Urrea Anger Copy Share Image
The French-Cajun culture is similar to mine - they're Catholic, they play accordions, and they eat hot chiles. — Luis Alberto Urrea Cajun Copy Share Image
I'm a theological writer mistaken for a political writer. My theme is grace versus karma. — Luis Alberto Urrea Failure Copy Share Image
I've been treated beautifully wherever I've gone, and I really think we all want to love each other. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
Death is alive, they whispered. Death lives inside life, as bones dance within the body. Yesterday is within today. Yesterday never dies. — Luis Alberto Urrea Alive Copy Share Image
A great Chicano forebear of mine in writing is Rolando Hinojosa-Smith. He was writing good border mysteries for Chicano readers back in… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I used to approach writing like a football game. If I went out there and aggressively saw more, I'd know more, and… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I came to believe the green fuse that drives spring and summer through the world is essentially a literary energy. That the… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
It's almost easy for me to write about a magnificent tropical village with orchids and dragonflies. That's intoxicating, but the United States… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“This is how Heaven works. They're practical. We are always looking for rays of light. For lightning bolts or burning bushes. But… — Luis Alberto Urrea Burning bush Copy Share Image
I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“I can't believe how many students don't read. They want to be writers, but they haven't read anything at all. They have… — Luis Alberto Urrea Books Copy Share Image
A lot of our family was undocumented. My mom and dad were both super conservative. My dad had a green card; my… — Luis Alberto Urrea Conservative Copy Share Image
It's not like Mexicans have an illegal immigration organ in their body and at 14 kicks off a hormone and shows them… — Luis Alberto Urrea Body Copy Share Image
During grade school, we moved to a white, working-class suburb in San Diego, and there were no Mexicans. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The world was more than a place. Life was more than an event. It was all one thing, and that thing was:… — Luis Alberto Urrea Events Copy Share Image
Way back when I was working at the dump, I saw that, even when living among the trash, that some people would… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
Writing went from being a calling to being a job. Business ruined things. It became like making sausages in a sausage factory. — Luis Alberto Urrea Being Copy Share Image
I am addicted to poetry, but the truth is I cannot pass up a good hard-boiled mystery. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I've been told not to tour down in Mexico. I am too well-known now. The kidnappers may think that my publisher will… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I was torn between the Americanness my mom wanted for me and the Mexicanness my father wanted - they were wrestling for… — Luis Alberto Urrea Father Copy Share Image
In the end, I'm really interested in people and what we do with our short time here on earth. I'm interested in… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“If it was the Border Patrol’s job to apprehend lawbreakers, it was equally their duty to save the lost and the dying.” — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I read most often in bed as part of my attempted sleep ritual. But I spend a lot of time reading on… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
When 'The Hummingbird's Daughter' came out, there was a certain backlash - 'Well, this isn't 'The Devil's Highway.'' That's just the way… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
Borders are liminal spaces. Anyone worthy of the title of 'writer' is a border writer. We all are border people. — Luis Alberto Urrea Border Copy Share Image
“On that long westward morning, all Mexicans still dreamed the same dream. They dreamed of being Mexican. There was no greater mystery.” — Luis Alberto Urrea Dream Copy Share Image
“Owls visited them at night. Some thought the owls were witches. Some thought they were angels of death. Some thought they were… — Luis Alberto Urrea Death Copy Share Image
The concept of a literature of witness - of bearing witness - has embedded in it the need for action. One must… — Luis Alberto Urrea Action Copy Share Image
