America Quote by Elena Poniatowska

Writers, especially those of us with roots in other countries, are rarely left to ourselves. We are asked to declare our allegiances, or they…

— Dinaw Mengestu

writing is the loneliest job in the world. There's always that frustrating chasm to bridge between the concept and the writing of it. We're…

— Fannie Hurst

The fact that I am a writer comes from the experience of being cut away from my roots and living in Venezuela, where I…

— Isabel Allende

Things have changed in Latin America now. We mostly have democratic governments in Latin America, so the position of the writer has changed. It…

— Carlos Fuentes

“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the…

— Don DeLillo

A writer has an inescapable voice. I think it's inherent in the nature, and I think that we don't control it anymore than we…

— Horton Foote

Writing is a noble privilege compared with the lot of most people, who live like parts of a machine, who live only to keep…

— Blaise Cendrars

“I think there is a naturally subversive role that writers play in any society, simply because they are trying to use language precisely, whereas…

— Vern Rutsala

“I’ve often envied those writers in the Western world who can peacefully practice their craft and earn a living thereby… What [the authorities here]…

— KEN SARO WIWA written to PEN Center USA from his prison cell in Nigeria shortly before his execution

Writers are greatly respected. The intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them, and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear…

— Saul Bellow

So much of writing is fed by vanity and the feeling that what you are doing is the most important thing in the world…

— Pankaj Mishra

Writers matter in a society to the extent that we can help that society hear its unvoiced longing, encounter its erased and disregarded selves,…

— Adrienne Rich