--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened…" description: "\"Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar.\" — Gloria E. Anzaldúa" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/739/gloria-e-anzald-a-19502_book_books-saved-my-sanity-knowledge-opened-t_1124079.png" --- # Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places… ![“Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar.” quote by Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/739/gloria-e-anzald-a-19502_book_books-saved-my-sanity-knowledge-opened-t_1124079.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/739/gloria-e-anzald-a-19502_book_books-saved-my-sanity-knowledge-opened-t_1124079.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/739/gloria-e-anzald-a-19502_book_books-saved-my-sanity-knowledge-opened-t_1124079.png) > “Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar.” [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Reading and knowledge rescued the speaker’s mental health, first teaching survival then empowerment to soar **In simple terms:** Books heal and empower Key Takeaway Use reading to heal and grow Themes education self‑help resilience Mood inspirational reflective Type testimonial philosophical When to use this quote - mental health recovery - personal development - creative writing Key Concepts literature psychology Questions to Reflect On - How can you make knowledge more accessible? - What books have changed your life? A Different Perspective Not everyone has access to supportive literature ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Book](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/book/) [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Knowledge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knowledge/) [Sanity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sanity/) [Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/) ## Related quotes > [“I remember the first year after my second child was born, what I can remember of it at all, as a year of disarray,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/i-remember-the-first-year-after-my-second-child-was-born-what-i-can/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [That's what Watts stand for, it taught me how to survive it taught me how to be a man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-rock/that-s-what-watts-stand-for-it-taught-me-how-to-survive-it-taught-me/) [Jay Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-rock/) > [Experience had quickly taught her that she could not survive the storms without the anchor of the constraining love of Christ and what she…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elisabeth-elliot/experience-had-quickly-taught-her-that-she-could-not-survive-the/) [Elisabeth Elliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elisabeth-elliot/) > [The remote has saved my sanity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fred-willard/the-remote-has-saved-my-sanity/) [Fred Willard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fred-willard/) > [Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-adams/let-every-sluice-of-knowledge-be-opened-and-set-a-flowing/) [John Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-adams/) > [The channels of intuitive knowledge are opened according to the intensity of individual need.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-roberts/the-channels-of-intuitive-knowledge-are-opened-according-to-the/) [Jane Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-roberts/) > [I was in enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate. Not a loner. And that saved my life, saved my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-king/i-was-in-enough-to-get-along-with-people-i-was-never-socially/) [Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-king/) > [A cultivated mind is one to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which has been taught, in any tolerable degree, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-stuart-mill/a-cultivated-mind-is-one-to-which-the-fountains-of-knowledge-have/) [John Stuart Mill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-stuart-mill/) > [You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay $24.95 for what you've just said. I think books were my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-tan/you-write-a-book-and-you-hope-somebody-will-go-out-and-pay-24-95-for/) [Amy Tan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-tan/) > [“Children built snowmen in their front lawns, played in the yard of the public library. I would miss that old library. I couldn’t realize…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ottessa-moshfegh/children-built-snowmen-in-their-front-lawns-played-in-the-yard-of-the/) [Ottessa Moshfegh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ottessa-moshfegh/) > [“It was true; books had saved me in my home remodeling projects, but they fell short in teaching me how to trust my instincts,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dee-williams/it-was-true-books-had-saved-me-in-my-home-remodeling-projects-but/) [Dee Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dee-williams/) > [I literally feel like books saved my life. I found these people. Me reading Camus and Kafka, all of the tortured teenager stuff of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-englander/i-literally-feel-like-books-saved-my-life-i-found-these-people-me/) [Nathan Englander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-englander/) > [When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simone-de-beauvoir/when-i-was-a-child-when-i-was-an-adolescent-books-saved-me-from/) [Simone de Beauvoir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simone-de-beauvoir/) > [“I believed that books might save him because I knew they had so far, and because I knew the people books had saved. They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-makkai/i-believed-that-books-might-save-him-because-i-knew-they-had-so-far/) [Rebecca Makkai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-makkai/) > [My love of books was all that saved me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/my-love-of-books-was-all-that-saved-me/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by Gloria E. Anzaldúa > [The U.S.-Mexican border es un herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/the-u-s-mexican-border-es-un-herida-abierta-where-the-third-world/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [A woman who writes has power, and a woman with power is feared.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/a-woman-who-writes-has-power-and-a-woman-with-power-is-feared/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue - my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/i-will-have-my-voice-indian-spanish-white-i-will-have-my-serpent-s/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [Nothing happens in the 'real' world unless it first happens in the images in our heads](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/nothing-happens-in-the-real-world-unless-it-first-happens-in-the/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [In trying to become 'objective,' Western culture made 'objects' of things and people when it distanced itself from them, thereby losing 'touch' with them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/in-trying-to-become-objective-western-culture-made-objects-of-things/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [The Gringo, locked into the fiction of white superiority, seized complete political power, stripping Indians and Mexicans of their land while their feet were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/the-gringo-locked-into-the-fiction-of-white-superiority-seized/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [Write in the kitchen, lock yourself up in the bathroom. Write on the bus or the welfare line, on the job or during meals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/write-in-the-kitchen-lock-yourself-up-in-the-bathroom-write-on-the/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [We are taught that the body is an ignorant animal intelligence dwells only in the head. But the body is smart. It does not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/we-are-taught-that-the-body-is-an-ignorant-animal-intelligence-dwells/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [To separate from my culture (as from my family) I had to feel competent enough on the outside and secure enough inside to live…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/to-separate-from-my-culture-as-from-my-family-i-had-to-feel-competent/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [the world I create in writing compensates for what the real world does not give me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/the-world-i-create-in-writing-compensates-for-what-the-real-world/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [I am visible-see this Indian face-yet I am invisible. I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/i-am-visible-see-this-indian-face-yet-i-am-invisible-i-both-blind/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/by-writing-i-put-order-in-the-world-give-it-a-handle-so-i-can-grasp-it/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [The act of writing is the act of making soul, alchemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/the-act-of-writing-is-the-act-of-making-soul-alchemy/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/write-with-your-eyes-like-painters-with-your-ears-like-musicians-with/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) > [We cannot educate white women and take them by the hand. Most of us are willing to help but we can't do the white…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-e-anzald-a/we-cannot-educate-white-women-and-take-them-by-the-hand-most-of-us/) [Gloria E. Anzaldúa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) [Explore all 31 Gloria E. Anzaldúa quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-e-anzald-a/) ## More Book quotes > [I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aiden-wilson-tozer/i-think-a-new-world-will-arise-out-of-the-religious-mists-when-we/) [Aiden Wilson Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aiden-wilson-tozer/) > [If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aesop-rock/if-i-had-a-dollar-for-every-time-i-couldn-t-sleep-i-could-buy-a/) [Aesop Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aesop-rock/) > [Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! 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I should have written more books.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/i-don-t-think-i-have-made-as-much-of-my-life-as-i-should-have-i/) [Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/) > [Some books are not read in the right way because they have skipped a stage of opinion, assume a crystallization of information in society…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/some-books-are-not-read-in-the-right-way-because-they-have-skipped-a/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [“People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. 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