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" To me, writing is prayer. I pray all the time. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Pray
Me
Prayer
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" I am actually a 'Seven Samurai' fan. "
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Actually
I Am
" Masculinity is kind of a toxic curse, isn't it? The expectations of it were hard on me. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Expectations
Me
Kind
" I've been treated beautifully wherever I've gone, and I really think we all want to love each other. "
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" I don't like to see people get kicked around. You have to stand up for them. "
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" 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 it goes. "
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Well
Out
Daughter
" I've been told not to tour down in Mexico. I am too well-known now. The kidnappers may think that my publisher will pay a ransom. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
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Think
Will
" With a name like Luis Alberto Urrea, it's political no matter what I do. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Name
Like
Political
" I'm always fascinated by the disjunct between what's really happening on the ground and the propaganda machine that feeds America alarmist news about immigration. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Always
America
Immigration
" When I was a little boy in Tijuana, it was wonderland. We left when I was probably four - I was dying of tuberculosis. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Left
Little
Four
" The situation was kind of complicated in that my mother didn't speak Spanish. My father spoke English, you know, as best he could. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Father
Best
Know
" There is beauty in our roots. Sometimes we think our roots are shameful, and people tell you that you're no good or your ancestors are no good or that you come from a neighborhood of no hope and terrible crime. But it's about the beauty of those places, and I carry that with me. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Roots
Beauty
Good
" 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
Things
Job
Writing
" It's not like Mexicans have an illegal immigration organ in their body and at 14 kicks off a hormone and shows them how to come to the United States illegally. It's a question of desperation for a vast majority of them. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Question
Immigration
Body
" I was deeply infected with storytelling from the get go, and I truly love it. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Get
Love
Storytelling
" The concept of a literature of witness - of bearing witness - has embedded in it the need for action. One must not simply hide in the shadows and type; one must also stand in the light. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Hide
Stand
Light
" I read most often in bed as part of my attempted sleep ritual. But I spend a lot of time reading on planes and in hotels, too. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Hotels
Bed
Most
" I'm interested in the eternal soul. That's what I write about. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Soul
Interested
About
" People think of me as a political writer, but I don't think of myself that way. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Think
People
Myself
" I used to approach writing like a football game. If I went out there and aggressively saw more, I'd know more, and I'd capture more, and I'd write better. Hut, hut, hut: First down and haiku! "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Writing
Better
Football
" A lot of our family was undocumented. My mom and dad were both super conservative. My dad had a green card; my mom was an Eisenhower Republican who did not approve of all the 'illegal people.' "
Luis Alberto Urrea
People
Mom
Republican
" The French-Cajun culture is similar to mine - they're Catholic, they play accordions, and they eat hot chiles. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Hot
Play
Mine
" I had not seen lawns till fifth grade - big green lawns. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Till
Seen
Big
" I missed the Wilco phenom while busy obsessing over rock en Espanol. So imagine my surprise when I found myself at O'Hare getting on a plane with my Chi-town homeboy, Jeff Tweedy. I loved the guy right away and loved his family. How odd to know somebody before you listen to them. I don't know if that's bad or good. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Busy
Surprise
Myself
" I am addicted to poetry, but the truth is I cannot pass up a good hard-boiled mystery. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Truth Is
Good
I Am
" It's almost easy for me to write about a magnificent tropical village with orchids and dragonflies. That's intoxicating, but the United States is magical, too. We just forget this. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Forget
Easy
Just
" I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality do dovetail with my motivation to write. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Motivation
Identity
Family
" I used to work with a relief group that took care of the people in the dump. We took them food and water and medicine and built homes and took them to church services, whatever was needed. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Water
Food
Church
" I love books with titles like, 'How Do You Spank a Porcupine?,' 'Arnie, the Darling Starling,' or 'The Bat in My Pocket.' "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Titles
Like
Books
" Spanish was my first language. Honestly, I learned to first speak in Spanish, not English, because my poor mother had to go to San Diego every day to work and then come back. And she would come home when I was an infant long after I was asleep. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Speak
Day
Home
" I was torn between the Americanness my mom wanted for me and the Mexicanness my father wanted - they were wrestling for cultural influence over me. "
Luis Alberto Urrea
Me
Wrestling
Father