Isabel Quintero > Quotes

“Poetry helps heal wounds.
Makes them tangible.

At the poetry reading I read
a poem.
A prophecy I wrote down.
Almost couldn't go through with it.

But it came out
hurried and hot
and by the end
my tongue was on fire.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“And if anyone has trouble understanding that, well, they can kiss my ass.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Why is every mom's concern about sex? There are more important things in life, like school, careers, poetry, books, ice cream, or learning how to make the perfect chocolate cake. It's so damn frustrating.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Living a lie is painful, and doesn’t do anyone any good. I had to be true to myself, because, either way, God would know if I was lying.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“And yesterday she sent for a priest who threatened him with God - of course, because everyone knows that the mission God has left for his worshippers is to hate people and damn them to hell.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“I don’t want us to be ashamed anymore (we all were crying by this point) of being pregnant or gay or poor or having a crackhead dad! I want us to be fucking proud of ourselves. (...) So we have to be proud and always remember who we are and when we make it to college, who we were.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Tacos are like what the voices of a hundred angels singing Bob Dylan while sitting on rainbows and playing banjos would taste like if that sound were edible.”
― Isabel Quintero

“If words are our weapons, we must ask ourselves, why should we use rocks and sticks when we have tanks available?”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“The way my tia looks at Raul is the way I look at Martin. He makes her happy and helps her see that she is stronger than she thought she was. It's not that he makes her stronger, but he definitely helps her see that she has been strong all along.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“I am going to have a grilled cheese sandwich and think about this precarious situation”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“This skin thing always pisses me off. What I need is a nopal on my forehead to let the world know about my roots. One of those flat cactus plants that my grandpa grew behind the house before he died--nopal en la frente. Yup. That would solve all my problems.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“The more I write, the more creative I feel and the more I feel I have to share.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Do not forget about the thorns on the roses
when you say that love is like a red red rose.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“I am going to have a grilled cheese sandwich and think about this precarious situation.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Love is like a white geranium.
It grows like a weed
overpowering the ground–
if you don’t take care of it
prune it
shape it
it climbs walls
and hides
insects
that slowly eat at it
making it die.
Easily grown
and easily withered.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“I wanted the zine to make people think about how girls are raised to think about our bodies and who gets to decide how we think about them.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“People are who they are no matter how much you want them to be somebody else, Gabi. And we have two choices: love and accept them with all their faults. Or not. In my case, my parents are choosing to not accept me because I can’t change, and I won’t pretend to be something I’m not. Your dad was addict because that is what he wanted to be. There was nothing you could have done to change that.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Then she wrote him a referral for using foul language, and I heard her mutter under her breath (because I was sitting right next to her desk when this all went down), "... and if I could give him one for being a fucking idiot, I'd do that too." I don't know if anyone else heard her, but if they did, no one said anything. I so did not realize that teachers cussed or that they didn't like some of their students. At that moment, Ms. Abernard became my new hero.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“…by Tracie Morris, “Project Princess.” It’s about a girl from the projects who doesn’t care what people think about her—she just does what makes her feel confident. Then I looked myself straight in the eyes and said, “Gabi, get over it. You look spectacular. You look amazing, so stop your bitching or do something that makes you feel better.” I took a deep breath and took off my shorts and shirt and stepped out on the beach like I owned that shit and didn’t give a fuck about all the skinny girls around me. After a while, I didn’t feel like an outsider and nobody made comments or even cared about what I looked like. The other think about being fat is that you spend too much damn time worrying about being fat and that takes time away from having fun. But I decided today would be different. And it was.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Who would have known that writing a poem would be so much work?”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“We are all fragments of one another, strewn across... borders.”
― Isabel Quintero, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide

“We are all fragments of one another, strewn across.... borders. Different lines in the same poem.”
― Isabel Quintero, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide

“Do we force our vision to find likeness, Reader, because we fear difference? Or is there beauty in the difference-- and in learning how we live and breathe and thrive amid all that difference?”
― Isabel Quintero

“Her God—or the God her church has told her about—doesn’t forgive easily and is more of a punisher and less of a lover than the God my mon has taught us about.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“Poetry helps heal wounds.
Makes them tangible.”
― Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

“I don’t need to be pretty; I need to be heard.”
― Isabel Quintero, Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights

“Book banning is a form of violence. Just like taking someone’s language, cutting hair, forbidding dances, and erasing cultures, book banning is a violence that finds support in state governments and other authorities, like school boards. Banning seeks to constrain critical thoughts and community, to destroy connection and punish mutual recognition and empathy.”
― Isabel Quintero, Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights