Home > Author > Elizabeth Acevedo
101 " Papi was a man split in two, / playing a game against himself. // But the problem with that / is that in order to win, you also always lose. "
― Elizabeth Acevedo , Clap When You Land
102 " She is a nurturer but she is also a ferocious defender. Remember that to walk this world, you must be kind but also fierce "
103 " There is an artist my mother loved, Juan Gabriel, who was once asked in an interview if he was gay. His reply: What's understood need not be said. I remember how Mami's eyes fluttered to me like a bee on a flower acknowledging the pollen is sweet. "
104 " Cooking is about respect. Respect for the food, respect for your space, respect for your colleqgues and respect for your diners. The chef who ignores one of those is not a chef at all. "
― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High
105 " ....and my heart is one of Darwin's Finches, learning to fly. "
― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X
106 " i think of all the things we could be if we were not told our bodies were not made for them. "
107 " Dreams are like the pieces of fluff that get caught in your hair; they stand out for a moment, but eventually you wash them away, or long fingers reach in & pluck them out & you appear as what everyone expects. "
108 " About a holy trinity that don’t include the mother. "
109 " 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. "
110 " There is freedom in coming and going for no other reason than because you can. There is freedom in choosing to sit and be still when everything is always telling you to move, move fast. "
111 " If I were nothing but dust, would anyone chase the wind trying to piece me back together? "
112 " I am beginning to learn that life-altering news is often like a premature birth: ill-timed, catching someone unaware, emotionally unprepared & often where they shouldn’t be: "
113 " I’ve learned to trust pretty words even less than a pretty face. "
114 " That’s what I learned, about him and most guys: who they are when they’re giving you flowers and trying to get in your pants is not who they REALLY are when it’s no longer spring and they’ve found a new jawn to hang out with. And I know the past isn’t a mirror image of the future, but it’s a reflection of what can be; and when your first love breaks your heart, the shards of that can still draw blood for a long, long time. "
115 " And even that young I learned music can become a bridgebetween you and a total stranger.-Xiomara "
116 " Trust. Yourself, mainly, but the world, too. "
117 " Swimming might be the closest to flyinga human being can get. There is somethingabout your body displacing waterin order to propel through space that makes you feelGodtouched. That makes me understand evolution,that we really must have crawled up from the sea. "
118 " Things you can buywith half a million dollars:a car that looks morelike a space creature than a car.A designer platinum purseto carry a small dog. A small dog.A performance by your favoritemusical artist for your birthday.A diamond-encrustedbottle of Dominican rum.A mansion. A yacht. A hundredacres of land. Houses, but not homes.All four years of collegeor beautician school & certificate.Five hundred flightsto the Dominican Republic.A half million Dollar Store chess sets,with their accompanying boxes.A hundred thousand copiesof Shakespeare's The Tempest.Apparently a father. "
119 " But who knew the words, when said by the right person,by a boy who raises your temperature, move heat like nothing else? Shoot a shock of warmth from your curls to your toes? "
120 " Freedom seems like such a big word. Something too big; maybe like a skyscraper I've glimpsed from the foot of the building but never been invited to climb. "