The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.

- Julia Alvarez

I grew up in a dictatorship, where you couldn't talk about difficult situations - there was this culture of silence. We would run into a problem and …

- Julia Alvarez

Don't plan it all. Let life surprise you a little.

- Julia Alvarez

A book does not discriminate against any reader. All are welcome at the table of literature.

- Julia Alvarez

A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.

- Julia Alvarez

I write to find out what I am thinking. I write to find out who I am. I write to understand things.

- Julia Alvarez

Everyone needs a strong sense of self. It is our base of operations for everything that we do in life.

- Julia Alvarez

It's like my whole world is coming undone, but when I write, my pencil is a needle and thread, and I'm stitching the scraps back together.

- Julia Alvarez

As a young writer, I was on guard against the Latina in me, the Spanish in me because as far as I could see the models that were presented to me did …

- Julia Alvarez