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" I have been a woman for 46 years and I only recently realized I can't change it and I like it. "
Isabel Allende
Been
Years
Woman
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" I can promise you that women working together - linked, informed and educated - can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet. "
Isabel Allende
Working Together
Women
Peace
" I never had time to think about my beliefs until my 28-year-old daughter Paula fell ill. She was in a coma for a year, and I took care of her at home until she died in my arms in December of 1992. "
Isabel Allende
Daughter
Home
She
" Empowering women means trusting them. "
Isabel Allende
Means
Trusting
Women
" Everybody has losses - it's unavoidable in life. Sharing our pain is very healing. "
Isabel Allende
Pain
Healing
Life
" I never try to convey a message, I just want to tell a story. Why that story in particular? I have no idea, but I have learned to surrender to the muse. I become obsessed with a theme or with certain stories; they haunt me for years, and finally, I write them. "
Isabel Allende
Me
Why
Want
" My father left when I was three, and I have no memory of him. The most significant male figures in my life were my grandfather, in whose house I lived during the first 10 years of my childhood, and later my stepfather. "
Isabel Allende
Life
Childhood
My Life
" Many fiction writers write for the critics or for themselves; they forget the common reader. I never do. I don't think journalism clashes with my fiction; on the contrary, it helps enormously. "
Isabel Allende
Journalism
Forget
Write
" Writing is a calling, not a choice. "
Isabel Allende
Calling
Choice
Writing
" I like historical fiction. I fell in love with New Orleans the first time I visited it. And I wanted to place a story in New Orleans. "
Isabel Allende
Like
Love
New
" I was a lousy journalist. I could never be objective. Sometimes I invented the whole story. "
Isabel Allende
Objective
Sometimes
Story
" I don't think the world will destroy itself in a nuclear cataclysm. On the contrary, we have the capacity to save ourselves and save the planet, and we will use it. "
Isabel Allende
Planet
Will
Use
" I try to let go of the intellect and just tell the story. I only read the page I have in front of me on the screen. Then when the whole story is told, I print it, wait a week and read it. "
Isabel Allende
Me
Week
Wait
" My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses. "
Isabel Allende
Great
My Life
Moving On
" I get thousands of letters, and they give me a feeling of how each book is perceived. Often I think I have written about a certain theme, but by reading the letters or reviews, I realise that everybody sees the book differently. "
Isabel Allende
Feeling
Me
Theme
" Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses. "
Isabel Allende
Interesting
Nice
People
" I rebelled against all form of authority, against my grandfather, my step-father, the Church, the police, the government, the bosses. Everything male that was there, and was determining my life. "
Isabel Allende
Police
Government
Life
" All summer, I read fiction because you must read for the pleasure and beauty of it, and not only for research. I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes. "
Isabel Allende
Mystery
Research
Believe
" I've been a story-teller all my life but I realized it only recently. "
Isabel Allende
Only
Realized
Been
" The fact that I am a writer comes from the experience of being cut away from my roots and living in Venezuela, where I couldn't find a place for myself, for years and years. "
Isabel Allende
Myself
I Am
Experience
" I was such a sullen, angry, sad kid. I'm sure there are writers who have had happy childhoods, but what are you going to write about? No ghosts, no fear. I'm very happy that I had an unhappy and uncomfortable childhood. "
Isabel Allende
Angry
Childhood
Fear
" We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged. "
Isabel Allende
Life
World
Where
" I was born in ancient times, at the end of the world, in a patriarchal Catholic and conservative family. No wonder that by age five I was a raging feminist - although the term had not reached Chile yet, so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me. "
Isabel Allende
World
Me
Family
" Kids are smart: don't underestimate their bull detector. Contemporary kids have access to a lot of information, so don't even try to fool them. I have never been more nervous about my research than when writing for young adults because they pick up every single error. "
Isabel Allende
Young
Writing
Smart
" I was not supposed to be in any way a liberated person. I was a female born in the '40s in a patriarchal family; I was supposed to marry and make everyone around me happy. "
Isabel Allende
Family
Way
Person
" The media could do a much better job, that's for sure, especially the media that targets women... Human rights? They couldn't care less! "
Isabel Allende
Media
Women
Care
" My desk is like a 'U,' so I have my computer and lots of dictionaries because I write in Spanish and I live in English. "
Isabel Allende
Write
Because
Desk
" I can't control life for my grandchildren, so how could I control a story? Sometimes I try to force something, and after working and working on that chapter, I realise that I am swimming against the current. I will never get there. So I have to let go of whatever previous idea I had about it and let the characters decide. "
Isabel Allende
Story
Life
Swimming
" I'm living in California but I have a place that is mine in Chile and I belong there. I am no longer an exile. "
Isabel Allende
California
I Am
Belong
" The pain of losing my child was a cleansing experience. I had to throw overboard all excess baggage and keep only what is essential. Because of Paula, I don't cling to anything anymore. Now I like to give much more than to receive. "
Isabel Allende
Pain
Losing
Child
" Unfortunately for my family, they have a writer in the family. "
Isabel Allende
Family
Writer
Unfortunately