Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are.

- Esmeralda Santiago

In the twenty-one years I lived with my mother, we moved at least twenty times.

- Esmeralda Santiago

I learned you pay for your happiness. That's why I don't expect to be happy all the time. I'd rather be surprised by one moment every so often to rem…

- Esmeralda Santiago

People think [immigration] is only about the dollar, but it's so much more complex. This is a place where you can reinvent yourself. I don't know tha…

- Esmeralda Santiago

What doesn't kill you, makes you fat.

- Esmeralda Santiago

if you don't exist in the arts of a culture, you're invisible. The arts are what express the soul of who we are and that expresses our humanity.

- Esmeralda Santiago

We're always going to have prejudices ... I don't think we can change society. You can only change individual by individual. And you can change yours…

- Esmeralda Santiago

Another train will come. Why rush? Why worry? Why go crazy? Another train will come. And sure enough, another train going my way was pulling into the…

- Esmeralda Santiago

How can you know what you're capable of if you don't embrace the unkown?

- Esmeralda Santiago