“I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.”

“I feel comfortable in Spanish, I chat like a parrot, but I don't have the confidence in Spanish that I do in English.”

“I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists.”

“I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog.”