David Bowles > Quotes

“When wounds are healed by love,
The scars are beautiful.”
― David Bowles, Shattering and Bricolage

“I want to be part of your story. I want your story to rearrange the symbols in my mind. I want your voice to be my voice.”
― David Bowles, The Blue-Spangled Blue

“Maybe I'm deceiving myself. Perhaps I don't know him as well as I'd like to imagine. What does a person so willing to utterly remake himself hold inside his heart? Can I trust such a man? What motivates him?

In an instant she knew, and she felt a bit of relief.

Love. Love was what drove him.”
― David Bowles, The Deepest Green

“It’s only here on earth, my friends,
We’re lent to each other, for at the end
We leave the beautiful songs behind…
We leave the beautiful blooms behind.”
― David Bowles, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry

“This fifth and final sun will die,
Like every sun before—
But for a moment we laughed in its light,
Like wind-blown petals
Sparkling near an exile’s campfire
Before the flames take them.”
― David Bowles, Shattering and Bricolage

“She imagines that she is a seed, driven by the wind, that withstands cold and heat, the worst possible conditions, until one day it falls, like the Bible says, on fertile soil. She knows one day she will flower. This is inevitable. Winter always ends, and springtide blossoms in its place.”
― David Bowles, The Seed: Stories from the River's Edge

“Who could truly set His shield to rest?
His throne? His mighty spear?
Think on that. Remember it well, O princes.
Who could lay waste to Tenochtitlan?
Who dares assail the foundation of heaven?”
― David Bowles, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry

“We are all walking the same path, though it ain't some road scored in earth or sky or sea. It's the path of easing suffering, both ours and that of others, and we walk it till ever creature stands free of pain and lies, in unity with truth and peace, at last enlightened and made whole.”
― David Bowles, The Seed: Stories from the River's Edge

“It was not enough that food aplenty was within Man’s grasp: he wanted more.

It was not enough that prey surrendered themselves to Man according to the natural order: Man wanted to cook his prey.

Man had discovered fire when lightning stuck and set a tree or two alight, but he was clumsy and greedy and stupid and could not keep the flame alive”
― David Bowles, Along the River: An Anthology of Voices from the Rio Grande Valley

“Retreat is brave when you steal a great prize from your enemy's hands.”
― David Bowles, The Deepest Green

“And so I just grieve, groaning,
'Let me not go
To the Place of the Shorn:
My heart is now precious...
For I, I am a poet—
And my flower is golden.”
― David Bowles, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry

“In the place of the bells, where battle is waged,
The reeds all lie broken in Chalco today.
Dust yellows the air, our houses are smoking,
The sobbing is rising—from the lips of your Chalcans!”
― David Bowles, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry

“Look upon our beloved Mexico―the ancient singers gave her such lovely names:
Navel of the Moon
Foundation of Heaven
Sea-Ringed World.”
― David Bowles, Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico

“Mimicque—zombies—can only be killed with an iron or obsidian blade, so don't think you can just act like the wrestler El Santo in the 1970s film El Santo Versus the Mummies of Guanajuato. If a walking undead is after you, run. Let the experts take care of the zombies.”
― David Bowles, Mexican Bestiary

“Quick as birds to catch the bugs.”
― David Bowles, The Deepest Green

“Shadows and light deceived us, but sounds we followed true.”
― David Bowles, The Deepest Green

“The knowledge annihilated his soul by relentless, insidious stages. Reality had turned on him. He could get no purchase on the universe. It moved onward, pitiless, caring not a whit.”
― David Bowles, Chupacabra Vengeance

“Don’t accuse others of eating when juice smears your face-fur.”
― David Bowles, The Deepest Green

“Man had discovered fire when lightning struck and set a tree or two alight, but he was clumsy and greedy and stupid and could not keep the flame alive.”
― David Bowles, Mexican Bestiary

“Whatever its origin, the Demon Hand is a scary thing to face. When you get in and out of bed today, be sure to run and jump onto the mattress, no matter what your parents say. No one wants to feel the furry touch of that black claw as it curls around your ankle and pulls you into the darkness...”
― David Bowles, Mexican Bestiary

“Roman, his breath hoarse and ragged, his body trembling like a leaf in an autumn storm, hugged himself in unspeakable fear as the thing’s face finally came into view: two round empty eyes in which sable night roiled forever and a gaping mouth that hungered for his very soul.

It was the cucu, come at last to claim its prize, the life of a child who defied the dark.”
― David Bowles, Creature Feature: 13 Frightening Folktales of the Rio Grande Valley

“A partir de cierto punto no hay retorno posible. Ese es el punto al que hay que llegar".”
― David Bowles

“You're a border kid, a foot on either bank. Your ancestors crossed this river a thousand times. No wall, no matter how tall, can stop your heritage from flowing forever, like the Rio Grande itself."
"M'ijo, pale folks catch all the breaks here and in Mexico, too. Not our fault. Not fair. Just the way it's been for years. Doors will open for you that won't for me... But now you've got to hold them open for us all." - They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems”
― David Bowles

“And there they deposit every last tear wept for the evils we do in this world. When it is filled to the brim, everything ends.”
― David Bowles

“aware of her transformation”
― David Bowles, The Smoking Mirror

“I'll cleave the very cosmos if you are ever caged. I'll cross the centuries and leagues upon this horse and lay waste to anyone who dares lay a hand on you.”
― David Bowles, Secret of the Moon Conch