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Elizabeth Acevedo QUOTES

Elizabeth Acevedo QUOTES

1 " I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X

2 " Just because your father's present, doesn't mean he isn't absent. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X

3 " But one thing I learned from the Saints,
when the crossroads are open t you, you must decide a path.
I will not stand still while the world makes my choices. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

4 " A queen
offers her hand to be kissed,
& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

5 " Where Papi is always thinking
of how to save another dollar,

I'm dreaming up a Sephora wish list
to request for my next birthday.

Mami stands in front of a stove for hours,
& I would burn an untoasted sandwich.

I am theirs. You can see them on me.
But I am also all mine, mostly. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

6 " But sancocho is a daylong dish to make.
It has many steps; it's making a pact with time
that you will be patient & the outcome will be delicious.

It is browning & boiling. Blending & straining.
It is meat & root vegetables. Herbs & salt.
It is hearty & made from the earth & heart. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

7 " Since my earliest memory, I imagined I would be a chef one day. When other kids were watching Saturday morning cartoons or music videos on YouTube, I was watching Iron Chef,The Great British Baking Show, and old Anthony Bourdain shows and taking notes. Like, actual notes in the Notes app on my phone. I have long lists of ideas for recipes that I can modify or make my own. This self-appointed class is the only one I've ever studied well for.
I started playing around with the staples of the house: rice, beans, plantains, and chicken. But 'Buela let me expand to the different things I saw on TV. Soufflés, shepherd's pie, gizzards. When other kids were saving up their lunch money to buy the latest Jordans, I was saving up mine so I could buy the best ingredients. Fish we'd never heard of that I had to get from a special market down by Penn's Landing. Sausages that I watched Italian abuelitas in South Philly make by hand. I even saved up a whole month's worth of allowance when I was in seventh grade so I could make 'Buela a special birthday dinner of filet mignon. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High

8 " Can you name me these ingredients?" Chef Amadí points to the different herbs and spices. "I can see that you know," she says. And I do know.
I pick up the large leaf and sniff it. It's smaller than the type we use back home but I'd know that scent anywhere. "That one's bay leaf," I say. "And that seed is cardamom."
She nods and shoots me a wink.
She moves us to a different station and opens a container where several large octopi chill on beds of ice. I've never worked with octopus and I'm fascinated by the vibrant red color of the skin and the slippery feeling of it in my hands. She demonstrates with a knife how to slice through the octopus tentacles that she will marinate for grilling. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High

9 " I might have gone a little overboard today buying some new spices- I swear I can spend all day at the supermarket. I especially love the one in our neighborhood that brings in ingredients straight from the island. I get to walk the aisles and pick up herbs and peppers from all over the world, thinking of all the ways to remix my favorite dishes. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High

10 " So, your cobbler traveled from the South of the US to the south of the Iberian Peninsula! I let the peaches sit in the juice of some sour oranges and added apricots, and the patrons at the restaurant I'm working at gobbled it up before the lunch rush was over! "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High

11 " As to your last assignment, I did make up a recipe inspired by my name. Although Julio has told me before it means "faith," I don't think I understood why my mother might have wanted to name me that until this year. And so I decided to make a remix of flambé shrimp à la Emoni, because what better way to take a leap of faith than to set something on fire and trust it will not only come out right, but that it will be completely delicious? "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High

12 " But me, I know a man can have many faces & speak out of
both sides of his mouth; I know a man can make decisions

based on the flip of a coin;
a man can be real good at long division,
give away piece after piece after piece of himself. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

13 " In a situation like this, how would anyone know so easily right from wrong when it seems we are all pivoting left, spinning in circles. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

14 " The first time Dre touched me

without our clothes on, she kept running her hand
from waist to hip. & I wanted to write Mami

a thank-you text, for giving my body a spot
that was made to nest Dre's hand. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

15 " Papi taught me every piece
has its own space.

Papi taught me every piece
moves in its own way.

Papi taught me every piece
has its own purpose.

The squares do not overlap.
& neither do the pieces.

The only time two pieces
stand in the same square

is the second before one
is being taken & replaced. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

16 " Every time I think about Aman
poems build inside me
like I've been gifted a box of metaphor Legos
that I stack and stack and stack.
I keep waiting for someone to knock them over.
But no one at home cares about my scribbling. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X

17 " What I wanted. What I wanted.
For so long. How bittersweet
a realized dream can be flavored. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

18 " Papi was embalmed in sea salt,
like an ancient insect caught in honey,

unmoving, from a different time. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

19 " I cannot fold any of their respects into my dress's pockets.

I cannot tie these respects together into a bouquet
to lay at my father's headstone.

Their respects are quick-footed
& I am sludging through this hardened mud of loss. "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land

20 " And as she recites Scripture words tumble out of my mouth too, all of the poems and stanzas I've memorized spill out, getting louder and louder, all out of order, until I'm yelling at the top of my lungs, heaving the words like weapons from my chest... "

― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X