Understanding is the key to everything. To rage, fear, love. If you understand a situation, it's going to make you mad. Or it's going to make you feel fearful. If any of us even had a clue as to what… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
The whole thing is this: If you don't use just basic grammar, if you don't get the language down, you're not going to have access to a tool that people use as a weapon against you. The only reason I… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
I culled poetry from odors, sounds, faces, and ordinary events occurring around me. Breezes bulged me as if I were cloth; sounds nicked their… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
“They turn the water off, so I live without water, they build walls higher, so I live without treetops, they paint the windows black,… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
Every poem is an infant labored into birth and I am drenched with sweating effort, tired from the pain and hurt of being a… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
I do know that if you can name certain things and understand them, it allows you to make better choices. Unfortunately, there's so much… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
“It's the process of making-do, of the life I've lived between breakdowns and break-ups, that has made life worth living. I could not bear… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
I can't stand the comfort zone. So many people I know, their parents give them their homes, and they get married and have children,… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
Literacy is freedom, and everyone has something significant to say, — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
I sat back in my wooden chair as they signed the paperwork and stared down at the arm rests, studying the various layers of… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
Americans would have a right to go to war with the Iraqis if we could name one author from Iraq. It disturbs me that… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
We're all self-destructive when we're young. We all rebel. If we don't, there's something wrong. But when a Chicano kid's in a rebellious state,… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
I believe it's our responsibility as citizens to get in there and not accept the constant failure of prisons to deal with racism, lack… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
You've got to invite Native Americans to the table, and Asians, and Chicanos. You cannot keep us in the back room anymore and give… — Jimmy Santiago Baca Copy Share Image
